Back to Psalms 102

Psalms 102:6-8

I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.

I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.

My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.

    I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.

    My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse.

  • KJV King James Version

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

    I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

    Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.

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  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    (102-7) I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am become as an owl of the waste places.

    (102-8) I watch, and am become like a sparrow that is alone upon the housetop.

    (102-9) Mine enemies taunt me all the day; they that are mad against me do curse by me.

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Cross-references (27)

  • Psalms 77:4 (v7) You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak.
  • Isaiah 38:14 (v6) I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
  • Zephaniah 2:14 (v6) Herds 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.…
  • Acts 26:11 (v8) Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even…
  • Revelation 18:2 (v6) He cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every…
Show all 27 cross-references
  • Job 30:29-30 (v6) I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches. My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.
  • Psalms 38:11 (v7) My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.
  • Psalms 69:9-10 (v8) For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. When I wept and I fasted, that was to…
  • Isaiah 34:11-15 (v6) But 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,…
  • Isaiah 65:15 (v8) You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you. He will call his servants by another name,
  • Lamentations 3:28-30 (v7) Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.…
  • Mark 14:33-37 (v7) He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed. He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly…
  • Acts 7:54 (v8) Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
  • Acts 23:12-35 (v8) When it was day, some of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until…
  • Deuteronomy 28:66-67 (v7) Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life. In the morning you will…
  • Job 7:13-16 (v7) When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint;’ then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions: so…
  • Psalms 2:1 (v8) Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
  • Psalms 22:2 (v7) My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.
  • Psalms 31:11-13 (v8) Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the…
  • Psalms 55:3 (v8) because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge…
  • Psalms 69:20 (v8) Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found…
  • Psalms 89:51 (v8) With which your enemies have mocked, Yahweh, with which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one.
  • Psalms 130:6 (v7) My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
  • Jeremiah 29:22 (v8) A curse will be taken up about them by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab,…
  • Micah 1:8 (v6) For 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.
  • Luke 6:11 (v8) But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.
  • Romans 15:3 (v8) For even Christ didn’t please himself. But, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

Explain this passage (16 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv6, 8 6 I have become like a pelican of the…

6 I have become like a pelican of the wilderness Instead of rendering the original word by pelican, some translate it bittern, and others the cuckoo. The Hebrew word here used for owl is rendered by the Septuagint νυκτικοραξ, which signifies a bat. But as even the Jews are doubtful as to the kind of birds here intended, let it suffice us simply to know, that in this verse there are pointed out certain melancholy birds, whose place of abode is in the holes of mountains and in deserts, and whose note, instead of being delightful and sweet to the ear, inspires those who hear it with terror. I am removed, as if he had said, from the society of men, and am become almost like a wild beast of the forest. Although the people of God dwelt in a well cultivated and fertile region, yet the whole country of Chaldea and Assyria was to them like a wilderness, since their hearts were bound by the strongest ties of affection to the temple, and to their native country from which they had been expelled. The third similitude, which is taken from the sparrow, denotes such grief as produces the greatest uneasiness. The word צפור, tsippor, signifies in general any kind of bird; but I have no doubt that it is here to be understood of the sparrow. It is described as solitary or alone, because it has been bereaved of its mate; and so deeply affected are these little birds when separated from their mates, that their distress exceeds almost all sorrow.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv6, 8 Ever mourning and solitary, casting out fearful cries.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Psa 102:6 I am like a pelican of the…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Pelican; or, bittern, as the same word is translated,…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv6–8 I watch,.... Night after night, and take no sleep;…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v6 A pelican - Is a solitary and mournful bird.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Verse 6. I am like a pelican of the…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v8 Psa 102:8. Mine enemies reproach me all the day…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv6–8 I am like a pelican of the wilderness -…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv6–8 6. Like a pelican of the wilderness—The idea is…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–8 6. He compares himself to solitude-loving birds which haunt…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–8 (6) Pelican.—See Lev_11:18. “It has been objected that the…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv6–8 I am like a pelican in the wilderness. The…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Ver. 6. I am like a pelican of the…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v7 I lie awake like a solitary bird
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv6–7 102:6 The owl was associated with ruin and desolation…
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