Ostrich

A large flightless bird with long neck and legs, known for its black and white feathers in males.

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Ostrich

About Ostrich

The ostrich is the biggest bird alive today. It cannot fly, but it runs very fast. Ostriches live in dry places with few plants.

In Bible times, they lived as far north as Syria and across the desert of the Negev. Today, they no longer live in those areas. The Hebrew name for ostrich means “daughter of the desert.”

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The animal itself Article

Habits, distribution, and how translators render the term across languages.

Key References

Lamentations 4:3

Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

Job 39:13

The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions and feathers of the stork.

All Scripture References (11)

Leviticus (1)
Leviticus 11:16

the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,

Deuteronomy (1)
Deuteronomy 14:15

the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,

Job (2)
Job 30:29

I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.

Job 39:13

The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions and feathers of the stork.

Isaiah (3)
Isaiah 13:21

But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.

Isaiah 34:13

Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.

Isaiah 43:20

The beasts of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I provide water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people.

Jeremiah (1)
Jeremiah 50:39

So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.

Lamentations (1)
Lamentations 4:3

Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

Ezekiel (1)
Ezekiel 27:6

Of oaks from Bashan they made your oars; of wood from the coasts of Cyprus they made your deck, inlaid with ivory.

Micah (1)
Micah 1:8

Because of this I will lament and wail; I will walk barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and mourn like an ostrich.