Psalm 84:3
New International Version
Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

New Living Translation
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!

English Standard Version
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

Berean Standard Bible
Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she places her young near Your altars, O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God.

King James Bible
Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.

New King James Version
Even the sparrow has found a home, And the swallow a nest for herself, Where she may lay her young— Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts, My King and my God.

New American Standard Bible
The bird also has found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may put her young: Your altars, LORD of armies, My King and my God.

NASB 1995
The bird also has found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts, My King and my God.

NASB 1977
The bird also has found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even Thine altars, O LORD of hosts, My King and my God.

Legacy Standard Bible
Even the bird has found a home, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she sets her young, At Your altars, O Yahweh of hosts, My King and my God.

Amplified Bible
The bird has found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young— Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts, My King and my God.

Christian Standard Bible
Even a sparrow finds a home, and a swallow, a nest for herself where she places her young — near your altars, LORD of Armies, my King and my God.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Even a sparrow finds a home, and a swallow, a nest for herself where she places her young— near Your altars, LORD of Hosts, my King and my God.

American Standard Version
Yea, the sparrow hath found her a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even thine altars, O Jehovah of hosts, My King, and my God.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Even the sparrow has found a house for itself and the pigeon makes a nest; they have raised chicks on the side of your altar, LORD JEHOVAH of Hosts, my King and my God!

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Yea, the sparrow has found himself a home, and the turtle-dove a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.

Contemporary English Version
LORD God All-Powerful, my King and my God, sparrows find a home near your altars; swallows build nests there to raise their young.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For the sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle a nest for herself where she may lay her young ones: Thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.

English Revised Version
Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Even sparrows find a home, and swallows find a nest for themselves. There they hatch their young near your altars, O LORD of Armies, my king and my God.

Good News Translation
Even the sparrows have built a nest, and the swallows have their own home; they keep their young near your altars, LORD Almighty, my king and my God.

International Standard Version
Even the sparrow found a house for herself and the swallow a nest to lay her young at your altar, LORD of the Heavenly Armies, my king and God.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, Where she may lay her young; Thine altars, O LORD of hosts, My King, and my God--

Literal Standard Version
Even a sparrow has found a house, | And a swallow a nest for herself, | Where she has placed her brood—Your altars, O YHWH of Hosts, | My king and my God.

Majority Standard Bible
Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she places her young near Your altars, O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God.

New American Bible
As the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest to settle her young, My home is by your altars, LORD of hosts, my king and my God!

NET Bible
Even the birds find a home there, and the swallow builds a nest, where she can protect her young near your altars, O LORD who rules over all, my king and my God.

New Revised Standard Version
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

New Heart English Bible
Yes, the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, near your altars, LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.

Webster's Bible Translation
Yes, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thy altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.

World English Bible
Yes, the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, near your altars, Yahweh of Armies, my King, and my God.

Young's Literal Translation
(Even a sparrow hath found a house, And a swallow a nest for herself, Where she hath placed her brood,) Thine altars, O Jehovah of Hosts, My king and my God.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Better is One Day in Your Courts
2My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she places her young near Your altars, O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God. 4How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You. Selah…

Cross References
Psalm 5:2
Attend to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to You I pray.

Psalm 43:4
Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise You with the harp, O God, my God.


Treasury of Scripture

Yes, the sparrow has found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.

yea, etc.

sparrow

Psalm 90:1
A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

Psalm 91:1
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Psalm 116:7
Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.

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Almighty Altar Altars Armies Bird Birds Finds Found Herself Home Hosts House Lay Nest Places Sparrow Swallow Themselves Young
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Almighty Altar Altars Armies Bird Birds Finds Found Herself Home Hosts House Lay Nest Places Sparrow Swallow Themselves Young
Psalm 84
1. The prophet, longing for the communion of the sanctuary
4. Shows how blessed they are that dwell therein
8. He prays to be restored unto it.














(3) Sparrow.--Heb., tsippor, which is found up-wards of forty times in the Old Testament, and is evidently used in a very general way to include a great number of small birds. "Our common house- sparrow is found on the coast in the towns, and inland its place is taken by a very closely-allied species, Passer Cisalpina" (Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 202).

Swallow.--Heb. deror, which by its etymology implies a bird of rapid whirling flight. (See Proverbs 26:2, where this characteristic is especially noticed.) The ancient versions take the word as cognate with "turtle-dove." In an appendix to Delitzsch's Commentary on the Psalms, Dr. J. G. Wetzstein, identifies the tsippor with the osfur of the Arabs, a generic name for small chirping birds, and deror with d-ri. which is specific of the sparrow.

Even thy altars.--Better, at or near thine altars, though even if taken as in the Authorised "Version the meaning is the same. There is no real occasion for the great difficulty that has been made about this verse. It is absurd indeed to think of the birds actually nesting on the altars; but that they were found in and about the Temple is quite probable, just as in Herodotus (i. 159) we read of Aristodicus making the circuit of the temple at Branchidae, and taking the nests of young sparrows and other birds. (Comp. the story in 'lian of the man who was slain for harming a sparrow that had sheltered in the temple of 'sculapius.) Ewald gives many other references, and among them one to Burckhardt showing that birds nest in the Kaaba at Mecca.

The Hebrew poetic style is not favourable to simile, or the psalmist would have written (as a modern would), "As the birds delight to nest at thine altars, so do I love to dwell in thine house."

Verse 3. - Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young. Both sparrows and swallows abound in Palestine. Canon Tristram found the nest of a sparrow "so closely allied to our own that it is difficult to distinguish it," in a chink of the Haram wall at Jerusalem, near the Golden Gate ('Land of Israel,' p. 182). An anecdote related by Herodotus (1, 159) shows that sparrows built about the Greek temples. The general meaning of the figure in this place seems to be, "If even birds love to build their nests, as they do, in the sacred precincts, how much more reason has the believing heart to find its home in the house of its God!" But the psalmist thinks it enough to suggest the parallel, and does not stop to carry it out. Even thine altars. The "altar" is put, by metonymy, for the temple itself. O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God (comp. Psalm 5:2).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Even
גַּם־ (gam-)
Conjunction
Strong's 1571: Assemblage, also, even, yea, though, both, and

the sparrow
צִפּ֨וֹר ׀ (ṣip·pō·wr)
Noun - common singular
Strong's 6833: A little bird

has found
מָ֪צְאָה (mā·ṣə·’āh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 4672: To come forth to, appear, exist, to attain, find, acquire, to occur, meet, be present

a home,
בַ֡יִת (ḇa·yiṯ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1004: A house

and the swallow
וּדְר֤וֹר ׀ (ū·ḏə·rō·wr)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1866: The swift, a kind of swallow

a nest for herself
קֵ֥ן (qên)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7064: A nest, the nestlings, a chamber, dwelling

where
אֲשֶׁר־ (’ă·šer-)
Pronoun - relative
Strong's 834: Who, which, what, that, when, where, how, because, in order that

she places
שָׁ֪תָה (šā·ṯāh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 7896: To put, set

her young
אֶפְרֹ֫חֶ֥יהָ (’ep̄·rō·ḥe·hā)
Noun - masculine plural construct | third person feminine singular
Strong's 667: The brood of a, bird

by Your altars,
מִ֭זְבְּחוֹתֶיךָ (miz·bə·ḥō·w·ṯe·ḵā)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 4196: An altar

O LORD
יְהוָ֣ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

of Hosts,
צְבָא֑וֹת (ṣə·ḇā·’ō·wṯ)
Noun - common plural
Strong's 6635: A mass of persons, reg, organized for, war, a campaign

my King
מַ֝לְכִּ֗י (mal·kî)
Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 4428: A king

and my God.
וֵאלֹהָֽי׃ (wê·lō·hāy)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct | first person common singular
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative


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OT Poetry: Psalm 84:3 Yes the sparrow has found a home (Psalm Ps Psa.)
Psalm 84:2
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