Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Job 39:17
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, etc.] Or “made her to forget” f1393 what she had; an instance of her forgetfulness is mentioned (<183915>Job 39:15); and so Leo Africanus f1394 says of it, that it is of a very short memory, and presently forgets the place where its eggs are laid; neither hath he imparted to her understanding; many instances are given of its stupidity by historians, as that it will take anything that is offered to it to eat, stones, iron, etc. f1395; that it will thrust its head and neck into a thicket, fancying: it is hid and covered, and that none can see it; which Pliny f1396 remarks as an instance of its foolishness; though Diodorus Siculus f1397 takes this to be a point of prudence, for the preservation of those parts of it which are weakest. Strabo gives f1398 another instance of its stupidity, its being so easily deceived by sportsmen, who, by putting the skin of an ostrich on their hands, and reaching out fruits or seeds to it, it will receive them of them, and be taken. Others observe the smallness of their heads, and so of their brains, as an argument of their want of understanding; and it has been remarked, as a proof of their having but few brains, that Heliogabalus, the Roman emperor, had six hundred heads of ostriches dressed at once for his supper, for the sake of their brains f1399.
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