רְנָנִים

From the study of Job 39:13

Range of meaning

This word appears only here. It is built on the root rnn, 'to cry out, to give a ringing shout' (often a shout of joy, as in Ps 33:1, but basically any loud, piercing cry). So rənānîm means 'the shrill-crying ones'. From context (vv. 14–18: eggs left in the sand, running faster than a horse, no flight) the bird is almost certainly the ostrich.

Against the English

Modern versions say 'ostrich'. The KJV says 'peacocks', and then uses 'ostrich' later in the verse for a different Hebrew word. YLT keeps the root meaning: 'the rattling ones'.

How it drifted

Where the KJV's 'peacocks' came from is not clear. It appears to follow an older Jewish guess and not the Latin Vulgate, which has struthio, 'ostrich'. Peacocks were known to the translators as the classic bird of showy plumage, which fit the 'goodly wings' they read into the line.

Used elsewhere in the period

Elsewhere the Hebrew Bible calls the ostrich bat yaʿănâ ('daughter of the desert'?) and links it with ruins, desolation and mourning cries (Isa 13:21; 34:13; Mic 1:8; Job 30:29) and with cruelty to its young (Lam 4:3). The Arabian ostrich lived in the Syrian and Arabian deserts until the twentieth century. Its loud booming and hissing calls explain the nickname.