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Monday, December 23rd, 2024
the Fourth Week of Advent
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Read the Bible

King James Version

Psalms 102:6

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

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Fellowship;   Pelican;   Thompson Chain Reference - Birds;   Pelicans;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Birds;   Owl, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Pelican;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Person, Personhood;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Cormorant;   Desert;   Owl;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Bird;   Desert;   Owl;   Pelican;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Owl;   Pelican;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Owl;   Praise;   Prayer;   Psalms;   Wilderness, Desert;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Desert, Wilderness;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Owl;   Pelican;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Desert;   Pelican;   Psalms the book of;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Pelican;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Christ;   Owl;   Pelican;   Wilderness;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Owl;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Owl;   Pelican;  

Parallel Translations

New Living Translation
I am like an owl in the desert, like a little owl in a far-off wilderness.
English Revised Version
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am become as an owl of the waste places.
Update Bible Version
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I have become as an owl of the waste places.
New Century Version
I am like a desert owl, like an owl living among the ruins.
New English Translation
I am like an owl in the wilderness; I am like a screech owl among the ruins.
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.
Amplified Bible
I am like a [mournful] vulture of the wilderness; I am like a [desolate] owl of the wasteland.
English Standard Version
I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places;
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
I am maad lijk a pellican of wildirnesse; Y am maad as a niyt crowe in an hous.
Berean Standard Bible
I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.
Contemporary English Version
I am like a lonely owl in the desert
American Standard Version
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am become as an owl of the waste places.
Bible in Basic English
I am like a bird living by itself in the waste places; like the night-bird in a waste of sand.
Complete Jewish Bible
Because of my loud groaning, I am just skin and bones.
Darby Translation
I am become like the pelican of the wilderness, I am as an owl in desolate places;
Easy-to-Read Version
I am lonely, like an owl living in the desert, like an owl living among old ruined buildings.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
By reason of the voice of my sighing my bones cleave to my flesh.
King James Version (1611)
I am like a Pelican of the wildernes: I am like an owle of the desert.
New Life Bible
I am like a pelican in the desert. I am like an owl of the waste places.
New Revised Standard
I am like an owl of the wilderness, like a little owl of the waste places.
Geneva Bible (1587)
I am like a pelicane of the wildernesse: I am like an owle of the deserts.
George Lamsa Translation
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert.
Good News Translation
I am like a wild bird in the desert, like an owl in abandoned ruins.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I am like the pelican of the desert, I have become as an owl among ruins.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(101-7) I am become like to a pelican of the wilderness: I am like a night raven in the house.
Revised Standard Version
I am like a vulture of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places;
Bishop's Bible (1568)
I am become lyke a Pellicane of the wildernesse, and like an Owle that is in the desert:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
I have become like a pelican of the wilderness;
Christian Standard Bible®
I am like an eagle owl,like a little owl among the ruins.
Hebrew Names Version
I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.
Lexham English Bible
I am like an owl of the wilderness; I am like a little owl of the ruins.
Literal Translation
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert.
Young's Literal Translation
I have been like to a pelican of the wilderness, I have been as an owl of the dry places.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I am become like a Pellicane in the wildernes, and like an Oule in a broken wall.
New American Standard Bible
I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the ruins.
New King James Version
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
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.

Contextual Overview

1 Hear my prayer, O Lord , and let my cry come unto thee. 2 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily. 3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. 4 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. 5 By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. 6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. 7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. 8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me. 9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping. 10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

like: Job 30:29, Job 30:30, Isaiah 38:14, Micah 1:8

a pelican: Isaiah 34:11-15, Zephaniah 2:14, *marg. Revelation 18:2

Reciprocal: Leviticus 11:16 - General

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I am like a pelican of the wilderness,.... It may be so called, to distinguish it from another of the same name that lives upon the waters; which has the name of "pelican" in the Greek tongue, as is said, from its smiting and piercing its breast, and letting out blood for the reviving of its young; and in the Hebrew language, from its vomiting shell fish it has swallowed down; :- where the word is rendered a "pelican" as here, and in Deuteronomy 14:17, the same we call the "shovelard"; but a "cormorant" in Isaiah 34:11, however, it seems to be a bird of solitude, and therefore the psalmist compares himself to it. According to Isidore g, it is an Egyptian bird, that inhabits the desert of the river Nile, from whence it has the name of Canopus Aegyptus:

I am like an owl of the desert; or "of desert places"; so the Tigurine version; it is translated "the little owl" in Leviticus 11:17. It delights to be on old walls, and in ruined houses, and cares not to consort with other birds, and it makes a hideous sorrowful noise h. Jarchi renders it the hawk, but that, as Kimchi i observes, is found in habitable places. Bochart k thinks the "onocrotalos" is meant, a bird so much of the same kind with the pelican, that they are promiscuously used by learned men; and which is a creature, as Jerom l says, that is used to dwell in desert places; and Isidore m observes, that there are two sorts of them, one that lives in the water, and another in the desert; it has its name from its braying like an ass; and Aelianus n speaks of a bird of this sort in India, which has a large crop like a sack; and the Hebrew word "cos" here used signifies a cup or vessel, from whence it may have its name; and which he says makes a very disagreeable noise, to which the psalmist may compare the voice of his groaning, Psalms 102:5.

g Origin. l. 12. c. 7. h "Solaque culminibus ferali carmine Bubo, saepe queri----", Virgil. Aeneid. 4. i Sepher Shorash. rad. כוס. k Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 2. c. 20. col. 275, 276. l Comment. in Esaiam, c. 34. fol. 64. A. m Ut supra. (Origin. l. 12. c. 7.) n De Animal. l. 16. c. 4.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I am like a pelican of the wilderness - A bird in the midst of desolation becomes a striking image of loneliness and distress. The word rendered “pelican” - קאת qâ'ath - is supposed to have been a name given to the pelican from the idea of vomiting, as it “vomits the shells and other substances which it has too voraciously swallowed.” The word occurs in the following places, where it is rendered as here “pelican:” Leviticus 11:18; Deuteronomy 14:17; and in Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14, where it is rendered “cormorant.” The following description, taken from the “Land and the Book,” vol. i. p. 403, by Dr. Thomson, will illustrate this passage. Speaking of the outlet of the Huleh, and the region of the exit of the Jordan from that lake in its course toward the sea of Tiberias, he says, “Here only have I seen the pelican of the wilderness, as David calls it. I once had one of them shot just below this place, and, as it was merely wounded in the wing, I had a good opportunity to study its character. It was certainly the most sombre, austere bird I ever saw. It gave one the blues merely to look at it. David could find no more expressive type of solitude and melancholy by which to illustrate his own sad state. It seemed as large as a half-grown donkey, and when fairly settled on its stout legs, it looked like one. The pelican is never seen but in these unfrequented solitudes, and to this agree all the references to it in the Bible.”

I am like an owl of the desert - The owl is a well-known bird which dwells in solitudes and old ruins, and which becomes, alike by its seeking such places of abode, by its appearance, and by its doleful cry, the very emblem of desolation.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 102:6. I am like a pelican of the wilderness — It may be the pelican or the bittern. The original, קאת kaath, is mentioned Leviticus 11:18, and is there described. See the note. Leviticus 11:18.

Owl of the desert. — כוש cos, some species of owl; probably the night raven. See the notes referred to above.


 
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