OSTRICH (יְעֵנִ֖ים, Lam 4:3 ostrich all Eng. VSS; בַּ֣ת יַּעֲנָ֔ה, ostrich ASV, RSV, owl KJV; חֲסִידָ֥ה, ostrich KJV, Job 39:13, love RSV; רְנָנִ֥ים, ostrich RSV; peacock KJV). Of the four Heb. words tr. “ostrich” in one or other Eng. VSS only two can stand. Bath Ya’anāh, found eight times, is more correctly tr. owl, as in KJV (see Owl for discussion). Heb. חֲסִידָ֥ה is the stork (q.v.). Ye’ēnîm (from greedy) is generally accepted, from LXX, Vulg., etc. onward, while Renãnîm (Job 39:13) is amply confirmed by the detailed description in the following vv. In the Biblical times the ostrich was found in all suitable parts of Pal. Less than a cent. ago it was being hunted regularly by Arabs, for it was a sign of prowess to catch one, but the Arabian species now seems to be extinct, the last known specimen having been killed for food in Saudi Arabia during World War II. Ostriches have also disappeared from much of their former range around the N African deserts and their numbers in other parts of Africa also have been reduced; today they are found only in open dry country, mostly in E Africa, where they are protected in reserves and national parks.

The ostrich is by far the biggest living bird, and an adult cock may stand eight ft. tall and weigh 300 pounds. It is conspicuous, with black and white plumage, and bare pink neck and upper legs. The wings are quite useless for flight, but bear the ornamental plumes for which ostriches are kept in farms. The hen is smaller and grayish brown. Although basically vegetarian the ostrich also takes insects, esp. locusts, and other small bugs that it may come across. Heb. יְעֵנִ֖ים, though thought by some commentators to mean “screamer,” is more likely to come from a root meaning “greedy,” and it may refer to its well-known habit, at least in captivity, of swallowing a wide range of unsuitable hard objects which may cause death. From the description in Job 39 it is clear that the author knew the bird well, and it is possible that Job had tame ostriches living around his tents, as the Arabs had into this cent. Great collections of tamed animals, prob. including ostriches, were kept in Egypt before 2,000 b.c. and in Mesopotamia in the 19th cent. b.c.; one of the earliest definite records is in the 3rd cent. b.c., concerning eight pairs of ostriches in harness that formed part of a procession at Alexandria.

The passage in Job 39 merits comment (v. 13). When displaying to the hen the cock waves and shakes its short, plume-covered wings (vv. 14, 15). The cock does most of the incubation, including through the night, and it is usual for the hen to leave the eggs, partly covered with sand, to be kept warm by the sun in the daytime. The eggs have, in fact, such thick shells that only a heavy blow would break one (v. 15 and Lam 4:3). Possibly this refers back to v. 14, but it could refer also to what happens when a pair of ostriches and their brood are chased; the parents run away, hoping to draw the attack, while the young ones “freeze” on the ground, their mottled down and feathers providing a good camouflage (v. 16). The charge of lack of wisdom is an old one, perhaps because of its habit of eating lethal objects (v. 17). An ostrich can maintain fifty m. per hour for some distance and so can outrun most horsemen.

The ostrich was well known to the ancient peoples and was widely eaten, prob. also by the Israelites, for it cannot be identified among the forbidden meats. Its eggs (six to eight inches long and weighing three pounds) were used as utensils after the contents were eaten; ornamental cups made from them have been found in Assyrian graves of around 3,000 b.c., as well as in other ancient cultures.

Bibliography G. R. Driver, “Birds in the OT”; II “Birds in Life,” PEQ (1955) 137, 138; A. Parmelee, All the Birds of the Bible (1959).