Bible Strands
Job 39:16
She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Job within a descriptive discourse on wild creatures, specifically noting the ostrich’s conduct toward her nest and eggs. The words — הִקְשִׁחַ (hik.shi.ach) means “treats roughly,” and the phrase בְּלִי פַחַד (be.li Fa.chad) literally renders “without fear” or “with no concern.” The thread — The theme of maternal neglect appears in Lamentations 4:3 and Deuteronomy 28:56, while 1 Kings 3:26 supplies the contrasting image of a mother’s protective compassion. Why it lands — The text states that God actively deprives the ostrich of wisdom, which produces her harsh treatment of her young, and requires the reader to acknowledge divine control over innate animal behavior.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers: her labour is in vain without fear;
Cross-references
- Lamentations 4:3 Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.
- Deuteronomy 28:56 The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter
- 1 Kings 3:26 Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!”
- 2 Kings 6:28 Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’
- Ecclesiastes 10:15 The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.
- Lamentations 2:20 Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- Habakkuk 2:13 Is it not indeed from the LORD of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain?
- Romans 1:31 They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.