Gave you the proud wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?
Read Chapter 39
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Hawk. We may also read, "Is the wing of the ostrich like? "Septuagint or Theodotion, "The bird Neelasa is rejoicing, if she take the Asida, the Neessa. "(Haydock)
Hebrew is variously translated, "The ostrich lifts itself up with its wings, which have feathers, as well as those of the stork. "(Bo chart)
It flutters, running like a partridge, swifter than any horse. (Adamson)
"Canst thou give to the stork and the ostrich their feathers "which form all their beauty? (Calmet)
Protestants, "Gavest thou the goodly wings upon the peacock, or wings and feathers unto the ostrich? "(Haydock)
The import of these names is uncertain. (Menochius)
Renanim, (from Ron, "to cry, or move quickly") may signify peacocks, ostriches Chasida, "a stork, (Haydock; Jer.) falcon, (Worthington) or heron; notsa "a hawk, or a feather. "(Haydock)
The first term occurs no where else, and may denote any singing birds or grasshoppers, as the last may be applied to the ostrich, which has "wings "though it fly not....
11. Who can be ignorant how much the heron and the hawk surpass all other birds in the swiftness of their flight? But an ostrich has the likeness of their wing, but not the celerity of their flight. For it cannot in truth rise from the ground, and raises its wings, in appearance as if to fly, but yet never raises itself from the earth in flying. Thus, doubtless, are all hypocrites, who, while they simulate the conduct of the good, possess a resemblance of a holy appearance, but have no reality of holy conduct. They have, in truth, wings for flight, in appearance, but in their doing they creep along the ground, because they spread their wings, by the semblance of sanctity, but, overwhelmed by the weight of secular cares, they are not at all raised from the earth. For the Lord in reprobating the appearance of the Pharisees, reproves, as it were, the wing of the ostrich, which did one thing in action, and made a show of another in its colour; saying, Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, h...
36. What is signified by the name ‘ostrich,’ but the synagogue, which had indeed the wings of the law, but from grovelling in its heart in things below, never raised itself from the earth? But what is expressed by the ‘heron’ and the ‘hawk,’ but the ancient fathers, who had power even in their living to soar to those truths, which they were able to perceive by understanding? The wing, therefore, of the ostrich is like the wings of the heron and the hawk; because the voice of the synagogue maintained in its words the doctrine of the early teachers, but knew it not in its living. Whence also the Truth warns the people of this same synagogue against the Scribes and Pharisees, saying; The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat; all therefore whatsoever they have said to you, observe and do: but do not ye after their works. [Mat. 23, 2] We could say much of the habits of the heron, but since its wing only is brought to our memory, we are prevented speaking of its habits.
