Job 30:29

30:29 I have become a brother to jackals

and a companion of ostriches. ¹ 

Leviticus 11:19

11:19 the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.

Psalms 104:17

104:17 where the birds make nests,

near the evergreens in which the herons live. ² 

Jeremiah 8:7

8:7 Even the stork knows

when it is time to move on. ³ 

The turtledove, swallow, and crane ⁴ 

recognize ⁵  the normal times for their migration.

But my people pay no attention

to ⁶  what I, the Lord, require of them. ⁷ 

Zechariah 5:9

5:9 Then I looked again and saw two women ⁸  going forth with the wind in their wings (they had wings like those of a stork) and they lifted up the basket between the earth and the sky.

[30:29]  ¹ sn The point of this figure is that Job’s cries of lament are like the howls and screeches of these animals, not that he lives with them. In Job 39:13 the female ostrich is called “the wailer.”

[104:17]  ² tn Heb “[the] heron [in the] evergreens [is] its home.”

[8:7]  ³ tn Heb “its appointed time.” The translation is contextually motivated to avoid lack of clarity.

[8:7]  ⁴ tn There is debate in the commentaries and lexicons about the identification of some of these birds, particularly regarding the identification of the “swallow” which is more likely the “swift” and the “crane” which some identify with the “thrush.” For a discussion see the Bible encyclopedias and the UBS handbook Fauna and Flora of the Bible. The identity of the individual birds makes little difference to the point being made and “swallow” is more easily identifiable to the average reader than the “swift.”

[8:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “keep.” Ironically birds, which do not think, obey the laws of nature, but Israel does not obey the laws of God.

[8:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “do not know.” But here as elsewhere the word “know” is more than an intellectual matter. It is intended here to summarize both “know” and “follow” (Heb “observe”) in the preceding lines.

[8:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “the ordinance/requirement of the Lord.”

[5:9]  ⁸ sn Here two women appear as the agents of the Lord because the whole scene is feminine in nature. The Hebrew word for “wickedness” in v. 8 (רִשְׁעָה) is grammatically feminine, so feminine imagery is appropriate throughout.