What Does Job 39:17 Mean?
Because God made her forget wisdom, and gave her no portion of discernment.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.THE KEY
The verse pictures understanding as a share God apportions, and does not allot to the ostrich.
THE MEANING
The ostrich’s lack of wisdom is attributed to God, and understanding is not apportioned to her. The verse holds this absence within God’s ordering of living creatures.
THE ROOT
חָלַק
chalaq divide or
GROWS FROM
חלק
To divide, allot, or give a share.
“gave her no portion of” in this verse is chalaq divide or. The verb carries the image of dividing out a share. Understanding is pictured as something allotted, so the verse describes a difference in what the ostrich receives.
ALSO GROWS
cheleq: A portion allotted to someone.
חֵלֶק
It makes the verse’s image of understanding as an apportioned share concrete.
machaloqet: A division, often one that separates people into opposing sides.
מַחֲלֹקֶת
It carries the same root’s image of dividing, which underlies the verse’s language of allotment.
הִשָּׁהּ
hishah caused her
GROWS FROM
נשה
To forget; in this form, to cause forgetting.
“made her forget” in this verse is hishah caused her. The word rendered “deprived” carries the shade of forgetting. Together with the next clause, the verse describes wisdom as forgotten and understanding as a share not allotted.
ALSO GROWS
nashah: To forget or cause to forget.
נָשָׁה
This verb family gives the ostrich’s absent wisdom the image of forgetfulness.
Menasheh: A name explained through the same verb in Genesis 41:51.
מְנַשֶּׁה
The name preserves the root’s connection to forgetting.
בִּינָה
binah discernment
GROWS FROM
בין
To discern or distinguish between.
Understanding here is a faculty of discernment: perceiving distinctions. The verse names its absence specifically, rather than saying the ostrich lacks every capacity.
ALSO GROWS
bein: Between or amid distinct things.
בֵּין
The word echoes the root’s image of perceiving what lies between or differs.
mevin: One who understands or discerns.
מֵבִין
It shows understanding as an act of distinguishing, the very faculty the verse says is not allotted to her.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents wisdom and other capacities as gifts God apportions rather than as abilities every creature receives alike.
And I have filled him with the breath of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of work.But the one and the same breath works all these, portioning to each one as it wills.But if any of you is left behind in wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all without doubling and without taunting, and it will be given him.THE THREAD
For the LORD gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and discernment.Both verses use חָכְמָה (chokmah, wisdom); Job’s בִּינָה (binah, discernment) and Proverbs’ תְּבוּנָה (tevunah, understanding) also share the ב־י־ן (b-y-n, discern) root family. Job names wisdom and understanding as absent from the ostrich by God’s apportionment; Proverbs names them as coming from God.
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