Psalms 84:3

3. The sparrow hath found a house, etc. To spiritualize this verse, or to convert it into a delicate symbolism, as if the sparrow and swallow represented the psalmist, who had at last found the place of desire, even the altars of God, is to abandon sober interpretation. Neither can we explain it of the well known nesting of birds in oriental mosques and idol temples. The plain historic sense only is admissible. The temple and city had lain desolate for seventy years during the captivity, from B.C. 585 to 515, (see notes on Psalms 74:3; Psalms 74:7,) and the birds had nested in the ruins. Thus the returned exiles found things, and mournfully describe them. צפור , ( tzippor,) here rendered “sparrow,” is a generic term for bird, generally small birds, the connexion determining the species. It occurs thirty nine times in the Old Testament, and is always translated in our English Bible either by bird or fowl, except here and in Psalms 102:7, (see note there,) where also it is rendered “sparrow.” But in these last mentioned places two kinds of bird are denoted. In the text before us its social habit and its disposition to nest among ruins are alluded to, and the sparrow proper is intended.

Swallow The original denotes a bird that flies in circles and glances on the wing, as the “swallow” does.