I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.
- BSB I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.
- 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 38:14Like 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.
- Zeph 2:14And 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.
- Rev 18:2And 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.
- Job 30:29–30I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
- Isa 34:11–15But 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.
- Mic 1:8Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.
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.