תהלים 102:6

Hebrew Modern Translation

דמיתי לקאת מדבר הייתי ככוס חרבות׃

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Aleppo Codex
[102:7] לקאת מדבר הייתי ככוס חרבות

Biblia Hebrica Stuttgartensia (1967/77)
[102:7] דָּ֭מִיתִי לִקְאַ֣ת מִדְבָּ֑ר הָ֝יִ֗יתִי כְּכֹ֣וס חֳרָבֹֽות ׃

Westminster Leningrad Codex
[102:7] דָּמִיתִי לִקְאַת מִדְבָּר הָיִיתִי כְּכוֹס חֳרָבֹֽות ׃

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.