Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Job 39:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Job 39:13 opens the thought unit with the words “Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?.” The LORD introduces a textually difficult bird portrait whose strange behavior resists a simple moral stereotype.
A bird is drawn as strange, and then as faster than a horse
This verse is one part of that explanation in Job 39:13–39:18. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Job 39:13–39:18
Read Job 39:13 with 39:13–39:18. Read alone, “Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: The speech describes disputed bird imagery, exposed eggs, apparent lack of wisdom, and startling speed that mocks the horse.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The LORD continues from Job 39:1–39:12: The LORD asks about mountain-goat births and depicts wild donkeys and wild oxen living free from human management and labor. Job 39:13–39:18 now develops the next distinct movement: The speech describes disputed bird imagery, exposed eggs, apparent lack of wisdom, and startling speed that mocks the horse. Within that relationship, Job 39:13 opens the thought unit through “Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?.”
Read Job 39:13–18 together
Why these verses belong together: Job 39:13–39:18 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained divine-speech movement: “The Ostrich Embodies Strange, Effective Creaturely Life.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.
Verse 13. 13 Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?
Verse 14. 14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,
Verse 15. 15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.
Verse 16. 16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers: her labour is in vain without fear;
Verse 17. 17 Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
Verse 18. 18 What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.
Follow the Context
- Identify the LORD's stated claim in Job 39:13–39:18.
- The speech describes disputed bird imagery, exposed eggs, apparent lack of wisdom, and startling speed that mocks the horse.
- Keep this interpretive control visible: The Hebrew is difficult, and the creature portrait should not be turned into a moral judgment on parents, women, or people with cognitive differences.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Job 39:13 does not permit “Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?” to be detached from its named speaker and complete thought unit. Job 39:13 does not establish a moral stereotype about mothers, women, parenting ability, or intelligence.
What Remains True
The difficult bird portrait emphasizes a creature whose unusual behavior and effective speed do not fit a tidy human moral scale. Job 39:13 keeps that conclusion accountable to the line “Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?.”
How It Can Shape Life
- State the translation uncertainty and refuse to turn the imagery into contempt for women, parents, or people with cognitive differences. Keep the selected wording “Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?” and Job 39:13–39:18's complete movement visible while acting.
Teach It Back
Explain why Job 39:13 opens the thought unit. Paraphrase “Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?,” identify the LORD, use 39:13–39:18, state one material uncertainty when present, and reject one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Job 39:13–39:18 — The Ostrich Embodies Strange, Effective Creaturely LifeSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The Hebrew is difficult, and the creature portrait should not be turned into a moral judgment on parents, women, or people with cognitive differences.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 39:13–39:18, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 39:13–39:18
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 39:13–39:18.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 39:13–39:18
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Introductory Issues and Theological Themes: divine speeches, creation, Behemoth, and Leviathan; applied to Job 39:13–39:18
Open the Enter the Bible Job course ↗modern scholarly pastoral commentary collection
Job preaching series and creation commentaries
Kathryn M. Schifferdecker
Working Preacher, Luther Seminary, 2012-2016
Supports: Lament, undeserved suffering, creation's wild freedom, nonhuman value, chaos imagery, encounter, and ending, used as one responsible pastoral-scholarly reading.
Exact location: Schifferdecker, Working Preacher Job series, commentary headed for Job 38:1-41:34; applied to Job 39:13–39:18
Open Schifferdecker on Job 38-42 ↗ancient greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Iob
Claude E. Cox
International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies; Oxford University Press, 2009
Supports: Ancient Greek textual and translation evidence where the Masoretic and Greek forms, wording, length, or attribution materially differ.
Exact location: NETS Iob, introduction on the shorter Old Greek and exact Greek translation and notes for Iob 39:13–39:18
Open NETS Iob ↗