I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.
- KJV I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
- NKJV I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert.
- NASB I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the ruins.
- NLT I am like an owl in the desert, like a little owl in a far-off wilderness.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He feels like a desert owl, a bird of lonely ruins. His suffering has left him isolated and desolate.
Overview
Comparing himself to wilderness birds, the psalmist expresses profound loneliness and abandonment. These creatures dwell in waste and ruined places, far from the company of others. The lament voices the isolation that often accompanies deep affliction, which God sees and hears.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Isa 38:14I 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.”
- Zeph 2:14Herds 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.
- Rev 18:2And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.
- Job 30:29–30I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.
- Isa 34:11–15The 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.
- Mic 1:8Because of this I will lament and wail; I will walk barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and mourn like an ostrich.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 102:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.