Albert Barnes Commentary Job 39:14

"For she leaveth her eggs on the earth, And warmeth them in the dust," — Job 39:14 (ASV)

Which leaves her eggs in the earth - That is, she does not build a nest, as most birds do, but deposits her eggs in the sand. The ostrich, Dr. Shaw remarks, usually lays from thirty to fifty eggs. The eggs are very large, some of them being above five inches in diameter, and weighing fifteen pounds - Goldsmith.

“We are not to consider,” says Dr. Shaw, “this large collection of eggs as if they were all intended for a brood. The greatest part of them are reserved for food, which the dam breaks and disposes of according to the number and cravings of her young ones.” The idea which seems to be conveyed in our common version is that the ostrich deposits her eggs in the sand and then leaves them, without further care, to be hatched by the heat of the sun.

This idea is not, however, necessarily implied in the original, and is contrary to fact. The truth is that the eggs are deposited with great care. Such attention is given to the manner in which they are placed that a line drawn from those at the extremities would just touch the tops of the intermediate ones (see Damir, as quoted by Bochart, “Hieroz.” P. ii. Lib. ii. c. xvii. p. 253). Furthermore, they are hatched, as the eggs of other birds are, largely by the heat imparted by the incubation of the parent bird.

It is true that in the hot climates where these birds live, there is less necessity for constant incubation than in colder latitudes, and that the parent bird is more frequently absent. However, she is accustomed to return regularly at night and carefully broods over her eggs. See Le Valliant, “Travels in the Interior of Africa,” ii. 209, 305.

It is also true that the parent bird sometimes wanders far from the place where the eggs are deposited and forgets the place. In this case, if she sees another nest of eggs, she is not concerned whether they are her own or not, for she is not endowed with the power of distinguishing between her own eggs and those of another.

This fact seems to have given rise to all the fables stated by the Arabic writers about the stupidity of the ostrich: about her leaving her eggs, and about her disposition to sit on the eggs of others.

Bochart has collected many of these opinions from the Arabic writers, among which are the following: Alkazuinius says, “They say that no bird is more foolish than the ostrich, for while it forsakes its own eggs, it sits on the eggs of others; from the proverb, ‘Every animal loves its own young except the ostrich.’”

Ottomanus says, “Every animal loves its own progeny except the ostrich. But that pertains only to the male. For although the common proverb imputes folly to the female, yet with her folly she loves her young, feeds them, and teaches them to fly, like other animals.”

Damir, an Arabic writer, says, “When the ostrich goes out from her nest to seek food, if she finds the egg of another ostrich, she sits on that and forgets her own. And when driven away by hunters, she never returns; which is why she is described as foolish, and why the proverb about her has originated.”

And warms them in dust - The idea which was evidently in the mind of the translators in this passage was that the ostrich left her eggs in the dust to be hatched by the heat of the sun. This is not correct, and is not necessarily implied in the Hebrew, although undoubtedly the heat of the sand is made to contribute to the process of hatching the egg, and allows the parent bird to be absent longer from her nest than birds in colder climates. This seems to be all that is implied in the passage.