Is there any special meaning/symbolism to owls in the Bible?

"I am like a pelican of the wilderness" (v. 6). the pelican is a water bird, but here out of its proper habitat. So the Lord Jesus, accustomed to the refreshing joy of the Father's presence in heaven, found it a foreign experience to be in a wilderness world, so contrary to His rightful place of perfect circumstances. "Also, like an owl of the desert," speaking loneliness in circumstances of no provision.

But more than this, "I lie awake, and am like a sparrow alone on the housetop" (v. 7). the sparrow is the social bird, found in companies. The Lord Jesus surely desired company, but even when with His disciples, we read of Him that "He was alone praying" (Luke 9:18). His disciples did not enter into His thoughts, so that His exercises were solitary. Similarly, the house speaks of fellowship, but where fellowship was desired it was lacking. How little we understand the loneliness of the path of the Lord Jesus in the world!

Psalm 102 is one of the most, perhaps the most, remarkable of all the psalms, and presents Christ in a way divinely admirable. Verse 10 gives the occasion of the cry with which the psalm begins. Christ is fully looked at as man chosen out of the people and exalted to be Messiah, and now, instead of taking the kingdom, He is rejected and cast off. The time is the immediate approach of the cross, but was, we know, perhaps often, anticipated in thought, as John 12. He looks to Jehovah, who cast down Him whom He had called to the place of Messiah, but who now meets indignation and wrath. We are far, here, beyond looking at sufferings as coming from man. They did, and were felt, but men are not before Him in judgment; nor is it His expiatory work, though that which wrought it is here if we take it in its full effect on the cross — the indignation and wrath. It is Himself — His own being cut off as man. He is in trouble; His heart smitten like a pelican of the wilderness and an owl of the desert; His days as a shadow that declines, withered like grass. Such was Messiah, to whom all the promises were. Jehovah endured for ever. His promises were certain. He would arise, and have mercy on Zion, and the set time was come.

In the passages that speak of the unclean birds "the owl . . . . the little owl . . . . and the great owl," are enumerated. Lev. 11:16-17; Deut. 14:15-16. The Hebrew for the first is bath yaanah. (See OSTRICH.) The second is kos: it occurs in the above two passages and in Ps. 102:6; and doubtless refers to the owl. The third, yanshuph, occurs also in Isa. 34:11. This in the LXX and Vulgate is the 'ibis,' and has been supposed by some to refer to the Ibis religiosa, a sacred bird of Egypt. There is also lilith in Isa. 34:14 only, translated 'screech owl,' (margin and R.V. 'night-monster'): its reference is doubtful. Also qippoz in Isa. 34:15 only, 'great owl,' (R.V. 'arrowsnake;' LXX and Vulgate 'hedgehog,' reading perhaps qippod with six Hebrew MSS.) There are several well-known species of the owl, but to which of them these various words refer cannot be specified with certainty. The Athene meridionalis is the owl most common in Palestine; the Strix flammea is the white owl.

yaen, Lam. 4:3, where its cruelty is referred to. A kindred Hebrew word (preceded by bath, signifying the female), bath yaanah, 'daughter of howling,' is eight times translated 'owl.' Lev. 11:16; Deut. 14:15; Job 30:29; Isa. 13:21; Isa. 34:13; Isa. 43:20; Jer. 50:39; Micah 1:8. It is classed among the unclean birds, and is characterised by dwelling in waste places, and also by its wailing cry, which well agree with the habits of the ostrich. Though some passages may seem to point to the owl, doubtless the ostrich is referred to in all the above passages.

The Hebrew word is nets, and is held to embrace the different species of hawk, of which there are several, as indeed is implied by the words 'the hawk after his kind.' They were birds of prey and were pronounced to be unclean. Lev. 11:16; Deut. 14:15. Some at least of the hawks are migratory, and this is supposed to be alluded to in Job. 39:26, in the expression "stretch her wings toward the south." The most common of the smaller hawks in Palestine is the Kestrel, Tinnunculus alaudarius.

tachmas. According to Gesenius this is the ostrich, but both the LXX and the Vulgate make it the night owl. It is classed among the unclean birds. Lev. 11:16; Deut. 14:15.

All of this description are unclean, whether they are characterised by power and dignity like the eagle, cruelty like the hawk, impudence like the cuckoo, or the ponderous and shallow gravity, the stupid wisdom, of the owl. "I don't believe," said Fox, "any living man is half so wise as Lord T— looks." Amongst them all there is none so impressive looking as the owl — to those that do not know that his omniscience is only parochial; that his attitude of grave impartial rebuke is only the fear to commit himself; that his preference for the twilight is not because he loves meditation (for he is only dozing when he looks so thoughtful), nor because of his exceptional devoutness, but simply because he is always confused by the daylight. His demeanour of calm disparagement does not mean a bit that he is superior in sanctity to everyone else: it only means that he thinks himself so. It is the general censoriousness which characterises this predaceous nature. We can forgive him much on account of his purblindness, but surely it is going too far when, like the mantis religiosa, he spells "pray" with an "e," instead of with an "a."

The next division handled is of the birds proscribed, which left other kinds free to the use of Israel.

" 13 And these ye shall have in abomination among the birds; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the osprey, and the sea eagle; 14 and the falcon, and the kite after its kind; 15 every raven after its kind; 16 and the ostrich, and the night hawk, and the seagull, and the hawk after its kind; 17 and the owl, and the gannet, and the ibis; 18 and the swan, and the pelican, and the vulture; 19 and the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat" (vers. 13-19). Of course the rendering in many cases is but approximate, some of the names occurring nowhere else. Nor is there any aim at scientific terminology, but a practical direction for Jehovah's people, with a moral application now for faith.

Many birds of the heaven are characterised by qualities hateful to God for those He takes into relationship with Himself; others are unsuited to be the food of mankind. What can be more opposed to His character than fierce rapacity toward the living, and insatiable greed toward the dead? The utility of these last as scavengers, in the actual condition of a fallen world, may be of no small value for men who settle down in the earth as it is, denying a primeval paradise for our first parents, or striving to blot out the proofs of their exile through rebellion against God. If the Israelite was forbidden to make such birds his food, the Christian is to have no fellowship with ways morally analogous; but to avoid and reprove them. If some of these birds boldly seek their prey by day, others find their congenial pursuits in the darkness of the night. There are birds as remarkable for lack of family affection as others for loving care. But in man what is even this without the fear of God? Some are of towering pride, others of loathsome lust after the unclean; some are known as of plain exterior, others of attractive beauty; some have quiet habits and natural kindness; others are boisterous, tricky, or otherwise offensive. But all symbolise traits with which we should eschew all communion. Christ is to be our food.

That this Psalm is a prophecy concerning the sufferings of Christ, His humiliation and death, and the gracious results which flow from it, is confirmed by the quotation in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. In that chapter His work and His glory are unfolded. Here we have both. First we have a prophetic picture of the lonely One, like a pelican, an owl in the desert and as a sparrow alone upon the house top. What a deep humiliation for Him who created all things (verses 23-28) to take the lowest place, even like a sparrow. Then we read how His enemies reproach Him. He eats His bread like ashes and mingles His drink with weeping. He suffers more than that, in making atonement--God's indignation and wrath is upon Him.

But who was more isolated than our blessed Master Himself, because He was ever the faithful witness, faithful amidst unfaithfulness. What was the effect of His very first gospel in the synagogue of Nazareth? They wanted to throw Him down from the steep brow of the hill. And how was it. at the close of His blessed ministry? He was forsaken of all. He was "like a pelican of the wilderness, like an owl of the desert, and as a sparrow alone upon the housetops" (Ps. 102) And what was the effect of Paul's faithful testimony, who followed so close in the footsteps of his Master? "All in Asia have turned away from me." "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me. … Nevertheless the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known," etc. Mark also the solemn dying injunction of the faithful apostle of grace and glory, addressed to his beloved Timothy and to all true evangelists:

The Psalmist said, "I am like a pelican of the wilderness," which refers to the bird sitting solitary for hours as it digests its stock of fish. It was an unclean bird. Lev. 11:18; Deut. 14:17; Ps. 102:6. In two other passages the same Hebrew word is in the A.V. translated 'CORMORANT,' where it should be 'pelican.' Isa. 34:11; Zeph. 2:14. The Pelicanus graculus and the P. crispus are known in Palestine.