Albert Barnes Commentary Job 30:29

"I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches." — Job 30:29 (ASV)

I am a brother to dragons - That is, my loud complaints and cries resemble the doleful screams of wild animals, or of the most frightful monsters. The word “brother” is often used in this sense, to denote similarity in any respect.

The word “dragons” here (תנין, tannı̂yn) properly denotes a sea-monster, a great fish, a crocodile, or the imagined animal with wings called a dragon (see the notes at Isaiah 13:22). However, Gesenius, Umbreit, and Noyes render this word here as jackals—an animal between a dog and a fox, or a wolf and a fox, an animal that abounds in deserts and solitudes and makes a doleful cry in the night.

The Syriac also renders it as an animal resembling a dog—a wild dog (Castell). This interpretation, focusing on jackals, aligns better with the passage's scope than the common reference to a sea-monster or a crocodile.

Shaw says, “The Deeb, or Jackal, is of a darker color than the fox, and about the same bigness. It yelps every night about the gardens and villages, feeding upon roots, fruit, and carrion” (Travels, p. 247, Ed. Oxford, 1738).

It is evident that some wild animal distinguished for a mournful noise, or howl, is meant, and the passage agrees better with the description of a jackal than the hissing of a serpent or the noise of the crocodile.

Bochart supposes that the allusion is to dragons because they erect their heads, their jaws are drawn open, and they seem to be complaining against God on account of their humble and miserable condition.

Taylor (Concordance) supposes it means jackals or thoes, and refers to the following places where the word may be so used: Psalms 44:19; Isaiah 13:22; Isaiah 34:13; Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 43:20; Jeremiah 11:11; Jeremiah 10:22; Jeremiah 49:33; Jeremiah 51:37; Lamentations 4:3; Micah 1:8; Malachi 1:3.

And a companion to owls - (Margin: ostriches). The word “companion” here is used in a sense similar to “brother” in the other member of the parallelism, to denote resemblance. The Hebrew words here rendered “owls” are, literally, “daughters of answering,” or “clamor” (יענה בנות, benôth ya‛ănâh).

According to Bochart, the name is given on account of the plaintive and mournful cry that is made. Gesenius, however, supposes it is on account of its greediness and gluttony. The name “daughters of the ostrich” properly denotes the female ostrich.

The phrase, however, is used for the ostrich of both sexes in many places (see Gesenius on the word יענה, ya‛ănâh; compare the notes at Isaiah 13:21). For a full examination of the meaning of the phrase, see Bochart, Hierozicon, Part II, Book 2, Chapter 14, pages 218-231 .

There can be little doubt that the ostrich is intended here, and Job means to say that his mourning resembled the doleful noise made by the ostrich in the lonely desert.

Shaw, in his Travels, says that during the night, “they (the ostriches) make very doleful and hideous noises, which would sometimes be like the roaring of a lion; at other times it would bear a nearer resemblance to the hoarser voice of other quadrupeds, particularly of the bull and the ox. I have often heard them groan as if they were in the greatest agonies.”