Psalms 102:6

I am like a pelican of the wilderness -A bird in the midst of desolation becomes a striking image of loneliness and distress. The word rendered “pelican” -קאתqâ'ath- is supposed to have been a name given to the pelican from the idea of vomiting, as it “vomits the shells and other substances which it has too voraciously swallowed.” The word occurs in the following places, where it is rendered as here “pelican:”Leviticus 11:18;Deuteronomy 14:17; and inIsaiah 34:11;Zephaniah 2:14, where it is rendered “cormorant.” The following description, taken from the “Land and the Book,” vol. i. p. 403, by Dr. Thomson, will illustrate this passage.