I am like an owl in the desert, like a little owl in a far-off wilderness.
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.
- 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.
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 chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
- Zeph 2:14Herds will lie down in the middle of her, all the animals of the nations. Both the pelican and the porcupine will lodge in its capitals. Their calls will echo through the windows. Desolation will be in the thresholds, for he has laid bare the cedar beams.
- Rev 18:2He cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird!
- Job 30:29–30I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
- Isa 34:11–15But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.
- Mic 1:8For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, and moan like the daughters of 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.