Psalms 102:5

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; See Gill on Lev 11:18 where the word is rendered a "pelican" as here, and in Deu 14:17, the same we call the "shovelard"; but a "cormorant" in Isa 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 Lev 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, Psa 102:5.

(g) Origin. l. 12. c. 7. (h) "Solaque culminibus ferali carmine Bubo, saepe queri----", Virgil. Aeneid. 4. (i) Sepher Shorash. rad. (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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Psa 102:5 By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

Ver. 5. By reason of the voice of my groaning] A broken spirit drieth the bones, Pro 17:22, and, by drinking up the marrow and radical moisture, casteth all into a consumption.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. (Psa 102:5) From the voice of my groaning, my hone cleaves to my flesh. The word voice implies an audible and loud expression of distress. The first clause means, in consequence of the agony which makes me groan. My bone may signify each of my bones, or be used collectively for the whole skeleton or framework of the body. The only natural explanation of this clause is that it describes emaciation, as a consequence and symptom of extreme distress. See above, on Psa 22:14; Psa 22:17.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

102:5 skin and bones: The psalmist has wasted away because of his anguish (see 102:9; 109:24).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(5) Skin.—See margin. In Lam_4:8, more correctly, “my skin cleaveth to my bones;” a picture of emaciation, the result of fasting.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. If the A.V. is retained, the verse will describe the state of emaciation to which he has been reduced by continued sorrow. Cp. Lam_4:8. But though the cognate Arabic word means skin, it is doubtful whether the Heb. word bâsâr can bear this sense. Usage requires the rendering of R.V., ‘my bones cleave to my flesh,’ which means apparently that his limbs are swollen and stiff. The phrase seems to be borrowed from Job_19:20, “my bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh,” where Job describes his limbs as partly emaciated, partly abnormally swollen, and stiff with disease. The curious rendering of the P.B.V. “my bones [Coverdale, bone] will scarce cleave to my flesh,” comes from the Zürich Version:—“Vor geschrey mines seufftzens mag mein gebeyn kum an meinem fleysch hangen.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By reason of the voice of my groaning - By suffering and trouble, so great as to produce groaning, my flesh is wasted away.

My bones cleave to my skin - Margin, “flesh.” The Hebrew word means “flesh.” The effect described is that of a wasting away or an emaciation of flesh from deep distress, so that the bones became prominent, and had nothing to hide them from view; so that they seemed to adhere fast to the flesh itself. See the notes at Job 19:20.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

My flesh being quite consumed with excessive sorrows.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 5. By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. He became emaciated with sorrow. He had groaned himself down to a living skeleton, and so in his bodily appearance was the more like the smoke-dried, withered, burnt-up things to which he had previously compared himself. It will be a very long time before the distresses of the church of God make some Christians shrivel into anatomies, but this good man was so moved with sympathy for Zion's ills that he was wasted down to skin and bone.

Ver. 5. My bones cleave to my skin. When the bones cleave to the skin, both are near cleaving to the dust. Joseph Caryl.

Ver. 5. That grief readily causes the body to pine away is very well known. It is related of Cardinal Wolsey, by an eye-witness, that when he heard that his master's favour was turned from him, he was wrung with such an agony of grief, which continued a whole night, that in the morning his face was dwindled away into half its usual dimensions.

Psalms 102:6*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. Bones cleave to my skin—From emaciation. Job_19:2; Lam_4:8.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By reason of the voice of my groaning; i.e. "by reason of the affliction which causes my groaning." My bones cleave to my skin; literally, to my flesh, but the Authorized Version rightly expresses the meaning. (comp. Job_19:20 Lam_4:8)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Skin - My flesh being quite consumed.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

I am like a pelican of the wilderness

He compares his loneliness to that of a pelican, which is often seem alone instead of with other birds. AT: "I am lonely and despised like a pelican in the wilderness" (See: Simile)

a pelican

a large fish-eating bird

I have become like an owl in the ruins

The author continues to describe loneliness by comparing himself to an owl in abandoned ruins. AT: "I have become alone like an owl in abandoned ruins" (See: Simile)

an owl

This is a bird that is awake at night. AT: "a night bird"

translationWords

groan

desert

ruin

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.