Pelican

The pelican appears in two places in scripture: on the lists of unclean birds in the Mosaic dietary law, and in a single psalm of desolation where the speaker compares himself to one. The bird is associated with wilderness and waste — never with food, never with sacrifice.

Among the Unclean Birds

In Leviticus the pelican is named in the catalog of birds Israel may not eat: "and the horned owl, and the pelican, and the vulture," (Le 11:18). Deuteronomy carries the same prohibition with the order shifted: "and the pelican, and the vulture, and the cormorant," (De 14:17). The pelican is grouped with owls, vultures, and cormorants — birds whose habits and habitats marked them off from the table.

Pelican of the Wilderness

The Psalmist seizes on that wilderness association as a figure for his own isolation: "I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I have become as an owl of the waste places" (Ps 102:6). The simile pairs two birds already paired in the dietary lists, and locates the speaker not in the social or ritual center but in the deserted edge — wilderness and waste places — where such birds live alone.