The Owl in the Bible Is Not Wise — It Is Lonely

The owl in Scripture is not wise. It is lonely, and it lives where people used to.

The wise owl is Greek — the bird of Athena, on the coins of her city. The Bible’s owl is something else entirely, and the difference changes several passages.

The unclean list

The owl’s first appearance is administrative. Leviticus 11:16-17 names birds not to be eaten, and several owls are among them — the horned owl, the screech owl, the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, depending on the translation.

Translators disagree about the identifications, because the Hebrew terms are rare and several appear only in these lists. What is consistent is that owls belong with the birds of prey and the scavengers rather than with the doves.

The bird of ruins

Where the owl really lives in Scripture is in the vocabulary of desolation.

Isaiah, describing Edom after judgment, gives an inventory of what will be there instead of people: The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there (Isaiah 34:11). Later in the same passage: There the owl will nest and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings (Isaiah 34:15).

That last line is strange and worth noticing. The image of desolation is a mother bird looking after her chicks. Something is living there. It is simply not us.

Zephaniah does the same to Nineveh: The desert owl and the screech owl will roost on her columns (Zephaniah 2:14). Birds on the capitals of a fallen imperial city.

The loneliest verse

And then the use that makes the owl worth an article.

Psalm 102 is titled a prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament. In the middle of it:

I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins. I lie awake; I have become like a bird alone on a roof. (Psalm 102:6-7)

Three images of the same thing. A bird in an empty place, a bird in a ruin, a bird awake on a roof at night while everything else is asleep.

Anyone who has been awake at four in the morning knows the third one exactly. The psalmist reaches for the owl not because it is wise but because it is the creature that is up when nobody else is.

And the psalm does not resolve quickly. It goes on for another twenty verses before it turns, and even the turn is about God’s permanence rather than the sufferer’s relief: But you, Lord, sit enthroned for ever.

What this means

If the owl has come to mind — in a dream, in a night, on a walk — Scripture’s association is not a warning and not a message. It is company.

The Bible has a bird for the person who is awake while others sleep, in a place that used to be fuller than it is. That bird is in a psalm, and the psalm was kept and sung.

Scripture provides no dream dictionary and never suggests one exists; Joseph and Daniel both say interpretation belongs to God rather than to their skill (Genesis 40:8; Daniel 2:27-28). What it provides instead is a vocabulary, and the owl is part of it.

Where the wise owl came from

Athena’s owl, on Athenian coins from the fifth century before Christ, is the ancestor of every wise owl since. The association travelled through Rome and into European folklore, and from there into children’s books.

It is a good image and it is not a biblical one. Where Scripture wants wisdom it does not reach for a bird at all — it reaches for a woman calling in the street (Proverbs 8:1-3), which is a considerably stranger picture and worth more than the owl.

Frequently asked

What does an owl symbolise in the Bible?

Desolation and loneliness. Owls appear in the unclean bird lists and in descriptions of ruined cities, and Psalm 102:6 uses the owl for a person awake and alone.

Is the owl a symbol of wisdom in Scripture?

No. That is Greek, from the owl of Athena. Scripture personifies wisdom as a woman calling aloud in the street (Proverbs 8:1-3).

Are owls unclean in the Bible?

Yes, several kinds are listed in Leviticus 11:16-17, though translators disagree about the exact identifications.

Is seeing an owl a bad sign?

Scripture gives no basis for reading any creature as an omen, and Leviticus 19:26 forbids seeking them.