Matthew Poole and continuators on Job 39:16

16. She is hardned against her young ones , as though they were not hers : her labour is in vain without fear ;

Or, He, i. e. God, hardens her. Or, she hardneth her self.

i. e. Against her eggs, which he calls her young ones emphatically, to aggravate her fault and folly in destroying those Eggs, which, if not neglected, would have been young ones.

As if they were laid by some other Bird. Or, that they may not be to her, i. e. that they may be utterly lost and destroyed; or as if it were her design to destroy their very being.

To wit, in laying her Eggs is wholly lost.

This may be added as a further aggravation. She doth this, not because she is compelled to forsake her Eggs for fear of men or beasts, but meerly out of an unnatural carelesness. Or, she is without fear, or, for want of fear, to wit, of a provident fear and care about them.