Job 39:16

16 The ostrich is cruel to its young, as if they were not even its own. It does not care that its work is for nothing,

Job 39:16 Meaning and Commentary

Job 39:16

She is hardened against her young ones, as though [they were]
not hers
Hence said to be cruel, ( Lamentations 4:3 ) ; not against the young ones she hatches, for Aelianus ^F3 reports her as very tender of her young, and exposing herself to danger for the preservation of them; but being a very forgetful creature, having laid its eggs in the sand, where it leaves them, forgets where it has laid them; and finding other eggs sits on them and hatches them, and regards the young as its own, and is hardened against its true and real young, as not belonging to her;

her labour is in vain without fear;
in laying her eggs and leaving them in the dust, without fear of their being crushed and broken, which yet they are, and so her labour is in vain; or her labour in hatching the eggs of others, without any fear or care of their belonging to others, which yet they do, and so she labours in vain.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 Ut supra. (Vid. Aelian. l. 4. c. 37.)

Job 39:16 In-Context

14 The ostrich lays its eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand.

15 It does not stop to think that a foot might step on them and crush them; it does not care that some animal might walk on them.

16 The ostrich is cruel to its young, as if they were not even its own. It does not care that its work is for nothing,

17 because God did not give the ostrich wisdom; God did not give it a share of good sense.

18 But when the ostrich gets up to run, it is so fast that it laughs at the horse and its rider.