11. cormorant--The Hebrew is rendered, in Ps 102:6, "pelican," which is a seafowl, and cannot be meant here: some waterfowl (katta, according to BURCKHARDT) that tenants desert places is intended.
      bittern--rather, "the hedgehog," or "porcupine" [GESENIUS] (Isa 14:23).
      owl--from its being enumerated among water birds in Le 11:17; De 14:16. MAURER thinks rather the heron or crane is meant; from a Hebrew root, "to blow," as it utters a sound like the blowing of a horn (Re 18:2).
      confusion--devastation.
      line . . . stones--metaphor from an architect with line and plummet-stone (see on Isa 18:2; Isa 28:17); God will render to it the exact measure of justice without mercy (Jas 2:13; 2Ki 21:13; La 2:8; Am 7:7, 8).
      emptiness--desolation. Edom is now a waste of "stones."

JFB.