THE SPARROW. 145 



THE SPARROW. 



IN the sacred writings, the Word tzeppur, which is a general ternl 

 applied to the feathered race> is in a more restricted sense appropri- 

 ated to the sparrow. This remark is the more necessary to be borne 

 in mind, because some translators, and among them ihe English, 

 have introduced the sparrow into the text, where this bird was evi- 

 dently not intended by the inspired writers. Our own translation, 

 however, requires correction but in one passage, namely, Psalm cii* 

 7 : ' I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house-top.' To 

 justify this translation, interpreters have represented the sparrow as 

 a solitary, moping bird, which loves to dwell on the house-top alone ; 

 and so timid, that she endeavors to conceal herself in the darkest 

 corners^ and passes the night in sleepless anxiety. But her charac- 

 ter and manners by no means agree with this description. On the 

 contrary, she is a pert, loquacious, bustling creature ; which, instead 

 of courting the dark and solitary corner, is commonly found chirp- 

 ing arid fluttering about in the crowd. The term in this text, there- 

 fore, must be understood in its general sense, and probably refers to 

 some variety of the owl. Jerom renders it, ' I was as a solitary bird 

 on the roof.' The Hebrew text contains nothing which can with 

 propriety suggest the sparrow, or any similar bird : and, indeed, 

 nothing seems to be more remote from the mind of David : all the 

 circumstances indicate some bird of the night ; for the Psalmist, 

 bending under a load of severe affliction, shuns the society of men, 

 and mingles his unceasing groans and lamentations with the mourn- 

 ful hootings of those solitary birds, which disturb the lonely desert. 

 'By reason of the voice of my groanings, my bones cleave to my 

 skin ; I am like a pelican of the wilderness ; I am like an owl of 

 the desert.' He then proceeds with his comparison : * I watch, and 

 am as a bird upon the house-top alone.' I watch ; that is, I have 

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