Teks -- Job 39:14 (NET)

39:14 For she leaves her eggs on the ground, and lets them be warmed on the soil.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

JFB: Job 39:14-15

Yet (unlike the stork) she "leaveth," &c. Hence called by the Arabs "the impious bird." However, the fact is, she lays her eggs with great care and hatches them, as other birds do; but in hot countries the eggs do not need so constant incubation; she therefore often leaves them and sometimes forgets the place on her return. Moreover, the outer eggs, intended for food, she feeds to her young; these eggs, lying separate in the sand, exposed to the sun, gave rise to the idea of her altogether leaving them. God describes her as she seems to man; implying, though she may seem foolishly to neglect her young, yet really she is guided by a sure instinct from God, as much as animals of instincts widely different.

Clarke: Job 39:14 - Which leaveth her eggs in the earth

Which leaveth her eggs in the earth - This want of parental affection in the ostrich is almost universally acknowledged. Mr. Jackson, in his Account of Morocco, observes: "The ostrich, having laid her eggs, goes away, forgetting or forsaking them: and if some other ostrich discover them, she hatches them as if they were her own, forgetting probably whether they are or are not; so deficient is the recollection of this bird."This illustrates Job 39:15 : "And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them."The poet seems well acquainted with every part of the subject on which he writes; and facts incontestable confirm all he says. For farther illustration, see the account from Dr. Shaw at the end of the chapter, Job 39:30 (note).

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Job 39:14 - Which // In the earth // Warmeth them in the dust

Which i.e. which ostrich; whose property this is noted to be by naturalists. Or, but ; for this unnatural quality is opposed to the goodliness of her wings or feathers.

In the earth in the place where she lays them; where she leaves them, either,

1. From care, lest she should crush and break them, if her vast body should sit upon them; or rather,

2. From forgetfulness, or carelessness, or unnaturalness, or folly; to which it is manifestly ascribed in the following verses.

Warmeth them in the dust either,

1. Covering them with sand, that they may be warmed and hatched by that, together with the heat of the sun. But this is judged a fabulous report; for the Arabians, amongst whom this bird is most frequent and best known, affirm that such eggs do quickly perish and putrefy. Or rather,

2. Exposing them to the heat of the sun, which being excessive in those hot countries, doth and must needs quickly destroy or spoil them. And the ostrich is said to warm them, because her leaving them there is not only the occasion, but im some sort the cause, of the sun’ s warming them.

Haydock: Job 39:14 - Dust

Dust. This might help to hatch them. (Calmet) ---

Hebrew, "earth, and warmeth them in the dust." (Protestants)

Gill: Job 39:14 - Which leaveth her eggs in the earth // and warmeth them in the dust

Which leaveth her eggs in the earth,.... Lays them and leaves them there. Aelianus, agreeably to this, says ^w, that it builds a low nest in the ground, making a hollow in the sand with its feet; though he seems to be mistaken as to the number of its eggs, which he makes to be more than eighty; more truly Leo Africanus ^x, who reckons them ten or twelve; which, he says, it lays in the sand, and each of them are of the size of a cannon ball, and weigh fifteen pounds, more or less. Hence, with the Arabs, it is called

"the mother of eggs,''

because of the large eggs it lays; and with them it is a proverb,

"meaner, or of a lesser account, than the eggs of an ostrich,''

because its eggs are neglected by it ^y;

and warmeth them in the dust; not that she leaves them to be warmed by the hot sand, or by the heat of the sun upon them, by which they are hatched, as has been commonly said, for thereby they would rather be corrupted and become rotten; but she herself warms them and hatches them, by sitting upon them in the dust and sand: and for this the above historian is express, who says ^z, the female lighting on these eggs, whether her own or another's, sits on them and heats them. Concerning the ostrich hatching its eggs, Vansleb ^a, from an Arabic manuscript, relates what is incredible, that they are hatched by the male and female with their eye only; that one or other of them keep continually looking at them until they are all hatched; and this I observe is asserted also by another writer ^b.