Psalm 102:6
New International Version
I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.

New Living Translation
I am like an owl in the desert, like a little owl in a far-off wilderness.

English Standard Version
I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places;

Berean Standard Bible
I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.

King James Bible
I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

New King James Version
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert.

New American Standard Bible
I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the ruins.

NASB 1995
I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the waste places.

NASB 1977
I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the waste places.

Legacy Standard Bible
I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the waste places.

Amplified Bible
I am like a [mournful] vulture of the wilderness; I am like a [desolate] owl of the wasteland.

Christian Standard Bible
I am like an eagle owl, like a little owl among the ruins.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.

American Standard Version
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am become as an owl of the waste places.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
I have been like a pelican in the wilderness and I have been like an owl in the desert.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
I have become like a pelican of the wilderness;

Contemporary English Version
I am like a lonely owl in the desert

Douay-Rheims Bible
I am become like to a pelican of the wilderness: I am like a night raven in the house.

English Revised Version
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am become as an owl of the waste places.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
I am like a desert owl, like an owl living in the ruins.

Good News Translation
I am like a wild bird in the desert, like an owl in abandoned ruins.

International Standard Version
I resemble a pelican in the wilderness or an owl in a desolate land.

JPS Tanakh 1917
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am become as an owl of the waste places.

Literal Standard Version
I have been like to a pelican of the wilderness, | I have been as an owl of the dry places.

Majority Standard Bible
I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.

New American Bible
I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.

NET Bible
I am like an owl in the wilderness; I am like a screech owl among the ruins.

New Revised Standard Version
I am like an owl of the wilderness, like a little owl of the waste places.

New Heart English Bible
I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.

Webster's Bible Translation
I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

World English Bible
I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.

Young's Literal Translation
I have been like to a pelican of the wilderness, I have been as an owl of the dry places.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Prayer of the Afflicted
5Through my loud groaning my flesh clings to my bones. 6I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins. 7I lie awake; I am like a lone bird on a housetop.…

Cross References
Isaiah 34:11
The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.

Isaiah 38:14
I chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security."

Zephaniah 2:14
Herds will lie down in her midst, creatures of every kind. Both the desert owl and screech owl will roost atop her pillars. Their calls will sound from the window, but desolation will lie on the threshold, for He will expose the beams of cedar.


Treasury of Scripture

I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

like

Job 30:29,30
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls…

Isaiah 38:14
Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.

Micah 1:8
Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.

a pelican

Isaiah 34:11-15
But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness…

Zephaniah 2:14
And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work.

Revelation 18:2
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

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Psalm 102
1. The prophet in his prayer makes a grievous complaint.
12. He takes comfort in the eternity, and mercy of God
18. The mercies of God are to be recorded
23. He sustains his weakness by the unchangeableness of God.














(6) Pelican.--See Leviticus 11:18. "It has been objected that the pelican is a water-bird, and cannot, therefore, be the kaath of the Scriptures--"the pelican of the wilderness"--as it must of necessity starve in the desert; but a midbar (wilderness) is often used to denote a wide open space, cultivated or uncultivated, and is not to be restricted to barren spots destitute of water; moreover, as a matter of fact, the pelican after filling its capacious pouch with fish, molluscs, &c, often does. retire to places far inland, where it consumes what it has captured. Thus, too, it breeds on the great sandy wastes near the mouths of the Danube. The expression 'pelican in the wilderness,' in the psalmist's pitiable complaint, is a true picture of the bird as it sits in apparently melancholy mood with its bill resting on its breast (Bible Educator, iv. 8).

Owl.--Heb., khos. (See Leviticus 11:17.) The bird is identified with the "owl" by the Hebrew in this passage, which should be rendered, "owl of the ruins." Some, however, would identify this bird with the pelican, since khos means "cup," rendering "the pelican, even the pouch-bird." (See Bible Educator, ii. 346.) LXX., Aquila, Theodotion, all have "screech-owl;" Symmachus, the "hoopoe."

Verse 6. - I am like a pelican in the wilderness. The Hebrew word here rendered "pelican" is elsewhere in our version translated by "cormorant" (Leviticus 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:17; Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14); but it is now generally believed that the pelican is intended (compare the Septuagint πελεκᾶνι, and see Mr. Houghton's letter in the Academy, April 5, 1884, and the versions of Hengstenberg, Kay, Cheyne, and our Revisers). The pelican is a bird which haunts marshy and desolate places. It abounds in the Lake Huleh in Northern Galilee (Thomson, 'The Land and the Book,' p. 260). I am like an owl of the desert; or, "of the ruins." The owl haunts ruins in the East no less than in our own country (Layard, 'Nineveh and Babylon,' p. 484, note).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
I am
הָ֝יִ֗יתִי (hā·yî·ṯî)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

like
דָּ֭מִיתִי (dā·mî·ṯî)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 1819: To compare, to resemble, liken, consider

a desert
מִדְבָּ֑ר (miḏ·bār)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4057: A pasture, a desert, speech

owl,
לִקְאַ֣ת (liq·’aṯ)
Preposition-l | Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 6893: (a bird) perhaps pelican

like an owl
כְּכ֣וֹס (kə·ḵō·ws)
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3563: A cup, a lot, some unclean bird, an owl

among the ruins.
חֳרָבֽוֹת׃ (ḥo·rā·ḇō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 2723: Waste, desolation, ruin


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OT Poetry: Psalm 102:6 I am like a pelican (Psalm Ps Psa.)
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