jackdaw

There is no consensus among scholars about the bird this word refers to. The word occurs five times, and from the contexts it can be stated with some certainty that

a. it is an unclean bird (that is, it is not a seed eater)
b. it is associated with the Judean Desert
c. it is associated with ruin

An additional feature, which has largely been overlooked, is that in four of the five verses the discourse structure indicates that it was paired in the biblical writers’ minds with the raven. This would indicate that this bird is probably a carrion eater or scavenger and possibly black.

These contexts would rule out the interpretation “pelican”. Psalm 102:6 could possibly be construed as referring to the great distress a pelican would suffer in the desert. However, this argument is weakened by the fact that it would be almost nonsensical in Isaiah 34:11 to indicate that Edom will become a place of hot springs and desolation by saying that it will be “a dwelling place of pelicans”. The White Pelican Pelecanus onocrotalus, which is the pelican seen most often in the land of Israel, lives in large rivers, lakes, lagoons, and oceans. They are passing migrants in Israel, staying only a few weeks in autumn. They stop briefly in the Huleh and Eilat areas, as they move from the Black Sea, the Danube Delta, and the Caspian Sea to Africa. No place in the whole of the Middle East could be called a “dwelling place of pelicans”. To do so would be to indicate that the place has become a wetland or full of suitable lakes well-stocked with fish.

Some sort of owl seems more likely, and most modern English translations follow Driver’s suggestion in this regard. New English Bible and Revised English Bible have “horned owl”. This is not a species of owl but a much broader classification referring to a family of owls that have prominent ear tufts. New International Version and New American Bible have an even more general term, “desert owl”. There is no such family or species of owl, and the phrase simply means an owl found in the desert.

However, another interesting suggestion has been the jackdaw. Besides fitting all of the contexts, it also makes a fitting pairing with the raven in Leviticus 11:18; Deuteronomy 14:17; Isaiah 34:11; and Zephaniah 2:14. In the latter two passages the birds mentioned would be the jackdaw, two types of owl, and the raven, making a typical Hebrew correspondence between opening and closing items, and between the two middle items. In modern Hebrew the jackdaw is called qa’ak, which might be a slightly modified form of the biblical qa’ath. All scholars are agreed that the name relates to the sound the bird makes, and this would certainly be a good representation of the sound made by the jackdaw.

Since the pelican is unlikely as the proper translation of this name, it will not be described here. Descriptions of owls indigenous to Israel can be found under owl.

The Jackdaw Corvus monedula is a member of the same family as ravens and crows but is smaller. It is black all over.

This bird is a symbol of uncleanness, desolation, and possibly death.

Jackdaws are found in the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe. A word for a small type of crow would be the best choice in most other places. Even a phrase such as “small crows and big crows” could be used for jackdaws and ravens.

If an owl is accepted as the meaning of qa’ath then a general word for owl is a better choice than any one subspecies of owl. However, care should be taken not to introduce an association with witchcraft, since this was not the case in the original Hebrew.

Jackdaw, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

desert / wilderness

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The Greek, Hebrew and Latin that is translated as “desert” or “wilderness” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Mairasi: “a place where noisiness is cut off (or: stops)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Muna: pandaso bhalano pr “big barren-field” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Balinese: “barren field” (source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )
  • Wantoat: “uninhabited place” (source: Holzhausen 1991, p. 38)
  • Umiray Dumaget Agta: “where no people dwell” (source: Larson 1998, p. 98)
  • Shipibo-Conibo: “where no house is” (source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
  • Amri Karbi: “waterless region/place” (source: Philippova 2021, p. 368)
  • Ocotlán Zapotec: “large empty place” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Pa’o Karen: “jungle” (denoting a place without any towns, villages and tilled fields) (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. )
  • Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
  • Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also wilderness and desolate wilderness.

complete verse (Psalm 102:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 102:6:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “I am like an owl of the wilderness,
    like an owl in the midst of ruins.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “I have become like a desert owl,
    I have become like an owl who lives in a haunted place.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “I am-by-myself like a wild bird
    or like an owl in a ruined place where there-is-no person who dwells.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “I stay like an crow of the desert,
    I stay like an owl that lives in a house that be destroyed.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Niko kama vile ndege wa jangwani,
    kama vile bundi wa katika mahame.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “I am like a lonely and despised vulture in the desert,
    like an owl by itself in the abandoned ruins of a building/city.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 102:6 - 102:8

The psalmist compares himself to a vulture (verse 6a), an owl (verse 6b), a lonely bird (verse 7b). As the Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, there is uncertainty over the identification of the bird in verse 6a; the Septuagint has “pelican”; New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and New American Bible “desert owl”; New Jerusalem Bible “great-owl.” The bird in verse 6b is an owl; in verse 7b bird translates the word which in 84.3a is translated “sparrow.” For translation suggestions for wilderness (Good News Translation “desert”) see comments on 29.8. The Hebrew for waste places (Good News Translation “abandoned ruins”) most likely refers to abandoned cities or buildings that have been destroyed, where an owl may live, but there are no people. Waste places and “desert” must sometimes be rendered “places where people do not live.”

In verse 7b the Masoretic text is “and I am”; some emend this to “I wail” (New English Bible), or “I moan” (New American Bible), or “I groan” (Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible), joining it to the preceding I lie awake. This does make for a better balanced line, but the Masoretic text as it is can be translated. A lonely bird on the housetop may be understood by readers in some cultures to refer to witchcraft. Where this idea is common, it may be necessary to add a note to explain that the psalmist is speaking of his lonely condition, in which he has no one to comfort him.

In verse 8 the psalmist complains of his enemies, who scoff at him (see similar language in 89.51). In some languages All the day or “All day long” may be taken as excluding the nighttime. In such cases it may be better to say “All the time” or “Day and night.” In line b, instead of the Masoretic text those who deride me, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate have “those who (used to) praise me,” which is followed by Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible; but the Masoretic text better parallels the preceding line. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers the Masoretic text, which it translates “those who become mad against me.”

Use my name for a curse means that the psalmist’s enemies call down upon others the same misfortunes and disasters that have befallen him; for an example of this see Jeremiah 29.22. Some, however, take it to mean that they curse the psalmist himself. For a curse and “in cursing” are both ambiguous. Therefore it will be necessary in some languages to adjust this statement by saying, for example, “curse others by using my name” or “when they curse other people, they do it by pronouncing my name.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .