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
The LORD introduces a textually difficult bird portrait whose strange behavior resists a simple moral stereotype.
Read It With
- Job 39:13–39:18
Job 39:13–39:18 is the required frame for Job 39:13. The LORD introduces a textually difficult bird portrait whose strange behavior resists a simple moral stereotype. The speaker and the unit's outcome control its meaning.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Job 39:13 belongs here because its wording gives Job 39:13–39:18 a necessary claim, question, reason, action, or turn. The LORD introduces a textually difficult bird portrait whose strange behavior resists a simple moral stereotype.
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 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.
How It Can Shape Life
- Role in Job 39:13: The LORD introduces a textually difficult bird portrait whose strange behavior resists a simple moral stereotype. Contextual meaning 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. As a literary contribution from the LORD, it must be evaluated with the prose frame, surrounding speech, and final verdict rather than flattened into an anonymous maxim. Proportionate enduring truth: The difficult bird portrait emphasizes a creature whose unusual behavior and effective speed do not fit a tidy human moral scale. Application: State the translation uncertainty and refuse to turn the imagery into contempt for women, parents, or people with cognitive differences.
Teach It Back
Explain Job 39:13's precise role in Job 39:13–39:18: The LORD introduces a textually difficult bird portrait whose strange behavior resists a simple moral stereotype. State how “The Ostrich Embodies Strange, Effective Creaturely Life” controls the line, keep this uncertainty 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.—trace role to contextual meaning to enduring truth to application, and reject one use the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
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 ↗