Ostrich & the Bible
THE EVIDENCE...

A museum piece in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York -- a Middle Assyrian seal impression showing an ostrich hunt -- is evidence that the ostrich was found historically in Asia, particularly in the Middle East. See for yourself! Take a trip to the Morgan Library at http://www.morganlibrary.org/collections/ancient/html/68.html.

The best evidence, however, is found in the Bible.

"Even the jackals present their breasts
To nurse their young;
But the daughter of my people is cruel,
Like ostriches in the wilderness."
Lamentations 4:3 (NKJV)

"The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,
But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork's?
For she leaves her eggs on the ground,
And warms them in the dust;
She forgets them that a foot may crush them,
Or that a wild beast may break them.
She treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers;
Her labor is in vain, without concern,
Because God deprived her of wisdom,
And did not endow her with understanding.
When she lifts herself on high,
She scorns the horse and its rider."
Job 39:13-18 (NKJV)

The ostrich is also referred to elsewhere in the Bible, but only in certain translations. For example, in the New King James Version, the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy describe the ostrich as an unclean, therefore forbidden, food. However, other versions of the Bible, such as the older King James Version and the New International Version, have translated the same verses as referring not to the ostrich, but to the owl or horned owl -- a much smaller, very different bird, and one unrelated to the ostrich or to its family of birds.


Compare the verses of Deuteronomy and Leviticus...

NKJV --
Deut. 14:15 the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the seagull, and the hawk after their kinds;
Lev. 11:16 the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the seagull, and the hawk after its kind;

KJV --
Deut. 14:15 And the owl, and the nighthawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after his kind,
Lev. 11:16 (exactly the same as Deut. 14:15)

NIV --
Deut. 14:15 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
Lev. 11:16 (exactly as in Deut. 14:15)

Now see what Job 30:29 has to say...

Job 30:29 --
NKJV --
I am a brother of jackals,
And a companion of ostriches.

NIV --
I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls.

KJV --
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.

Here the NKJV refers to the ostrich (but look in your NIV or KJV and you'll see references to the owl instead)...

But wild beasts of the desert will lie there,
And their houses will be full of owls;
Ostriches will dwell there,
And wild goats will caper there.
Isaiah 13:21

And thorns shall come up in its palaces,
Nettles and brambles in its fortresses;
It shall be a habitation of jackals,
A courtyard for ostriches.
Isaiah 34:13

The beast of the field will honor Me,
The jackals and the ostriches,
Because I give waters in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert,
To give drink to My people, My chosen.
Isaiah 43:20

Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals,
And the ostriches shall dwell in it.
It shall be inhabited no more forever,
Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
Jer. 50:39

Therefore I will wail and howl,
I will go stripped and naked;
I will make a wailing like the jackals
And a mourning like the ostriches,
For her wounds are incurable.
For it has come to Judah;
It has come to the gate of My people --
To Jerusalem.
Micah 1:8