An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

Several Translators (as was touched before) find two distinct fowls in this latter part of the verse.¹ Mr. Broughton saith, Gavest thou feathers to the Stork and Ostrich? and so others. Our Translators put it thus in the Margin, The feathers of the Stork and Ostrich. The occasion of this difference in translating, arises ⟨p. 393⟩from the original word used last in this verse, which commonly signifies a feather only,² yet is sometimes taken to signify the fowl it self, or a feathered fowl; and because the Ostrich hath the richest and most beautiful feathers, therefore it is here translated, the Ostrich. The feathers of the Ostrich being that for which she is most famous, the Ostrich her self may (not inelegantly) be expressed by a word, which properly and strictly taken, signifies nothing but a feather; but most interpreters taking that word in its proper sense to signify a feather, take the former word, which firstly and properly signifies a Stork, for the Ostrich. Gavest thou wings and feathers to the Ostrich. The reason, I conceive, why that word (Chasidah) which properly signifieth a Stork, is here rendered an Ostrich, is because the description given of the bird here intended in the five verses following, doth no way agree with the Stork, but fairly with the Ostrich; for the Stork (say Naturalists) is of a very good and pitiful nature, and hath its name from a root in the Hebrew, which signifies kindness, pity and tenderness, whereas the creature here described, is void of all these, as will appear in opening this context. And therefore Grammarians tell us, that the Ostrich is so called by the rule of contraries, merciful or kind, for unkind and cruel; which way of speaking is usual in the Hebrew, as also in other languages. Thus the Hebrew word for a Harlot, signifies one that is holy; Harlots being most unholy, filthy, and unclean women, prostituting their bodies to the lusts of others, and inviting them to unlawful pleasures.

Several Translators (as was toucht before) find two distinct fowls in this latter part of the verse.¹ Mr. Broughton saith, Gavest thou feathers to the Stork and Ostrich? and so others. Our Translators put it thus in the Margin, The feathers of the Stork and Ostrich. The occasion of this difference in translating, arises