Psalms 107:34

Psa 107:34 A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.

Ver. 34. A fruitful land into barrenness] Heb. saltness. See Luk 14:34-35 Deu 29:23 Jdg 9:45. Salt breedeth barrenness, by eating up the fat and moisture of the earth. Some think the psalmist here alludeth to Sodom and her sisters turned into the Red Sea.

For the wickedness of them that dwell therein] Hereof Judea is at this day a noble instance (besides many parts of Asia and Africa, once very fruitful, now, since they became Mahometan, dry and desert). Judea, saith one, hath now only some few parcels of rich ground found in it; that men may guess the goodness of the cloth by the fineness of the shreds. Greece, which was once Sol et sal gentium, saith another, terrarum flos, fens literarum, nunc vel Priamo miseranda manus; - nunc in Graecia desideramus Graeciam; it is nothing like the place it was once.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ver. 34. The curse, cause, and cure of barrenness in a church.

Psalms 107:34*

Ver. 34. A fruitful land into barrenness. This has been done in many instances, and notably in the case of the psalmist's own country, which was once the glory of all lands and is now almost a desert.

For the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Sin is at the bottom of sorrow. It first made the ground sterile in father Adam's day, and it continues to have a blighting effect upon all that it touches. If we have not the salt of holiness we shall soon receive the salt of barrenness, for the text in the Hebrew is"a fruitful land into saltness." If we will not yield the Lord a harvest of obedience he may forbid the soil to yield us a harvest of bread, and what then? If we turn good into evil can we wonder if the Lord pays us in kind, and returns our baseness into our own bosoms? Many a barren church owes its present sad estate to its inconsistent behaviour, and many a barren Christian has come into this mournful condition by a careless, unsanctified walk before the Lord. Let not saints who are now useful run the risk of enduring the loss of their mercies, but let them be watchful that all things may go well with them.

Ver. 34. A fruitful land into barrenness. Hereof Judaea is at this day a notable instance (besides many parts of Asia, and Africa, once very fruitful, now, since they became Mahometan, dry and desert). Judaea, saith one, hath now only some few parcels of rich ground found in it; that men may guess the goodness of the cloth by the fineness of the shreds. John Trapp.

Ver. 34. For the wickedness of them that dwell therein. When I meet with a querulous husbandman, he tells me of a churlish soil, of a wet seed time, of a green winter, of an unkindly spring, of a lukewarm summer, of a blustering autumn; but I tell him of a displeased God, who will be sure to contrive and fetch all seasons and elements, to his own most wise drifts and purposes. Joseph Hall.

Ver. 34. For the wickedness. God locks up the clouds, because we have shut up our mouths. The earth is grown hard as iron to us, because we have hardened our hearts against our miserable neighbours. The cries of the poor for bread are loud, because our cries against sin have been so low. Sicknesses run apace from house to house, and sweep away the poor unprepared inhabitants, because we sweep not out the sin that breeds them. Richard Baxter, 1615-1691.

Psalms 107:35*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

34. (Psa 107:34) A fruitful land to saltness, for the wickedness of those dwelling in it. The sentence is continued from the foregoing verse, the nouns being governed by the verb he turns. The first phrase literally means a land of fruit. The next noun may be taken either in the abstract sense of saltness or the concrete one of a saline soil or region, and by implication barren. For, literally from, as in Psa 107:17 above. Compare the threatening in Isa 13:19, and the great historical type of all such judgments, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, saltness.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(34) Barrenness.—Better, a salt marsh, as in LXX. and Vulg. (See Job_39:6.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34. barrenness] A salt desert (Jer_17:6) like Sodom and Gomorrha, Deu_29:23.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And sow the fields, and plant vineyards,.... And so raise a sufficient supply of corn and wine for the support of themselves and families. In a spiritual sense the "fields" are the world, and the seed which is sown is the word; the persons that sow it are the ministers of the Gospel, which, by a divine blessing, brings forth fruit, in some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold: the "vineyards" are the churches, planted by Christ and by his ministers, as his instruments; believers are the pleasant plants in them, and young converts are the tender grapes

Which may yield fruits of increase; or "fruit" and "increase"; the fields yield all sorts of grain for food, and the vineyards wine for drink. So the seed of the word being sown, and churches planted, they increase with the increase of God, and bring forth fruits of righteousness to the glory of his name.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

A fruitful land - Hebrew, A land of fruit. That is, a land that would produce abundance. The word “fruit” here is not used in the limited sense in which we now employ it, but means any productions of the earth.

Into barrenness - Margin, as in Hebrew, “saltness.” The word is used to denote a barren soil, because where salt “abounds” the soil “is” barren. Thus it is around the Dead Sea. Compare Job 39:6; Jer 17:6. See also Virg. Geor. II. 238, “Salsa ... tellus - frugibus infelix;” Pliny, Hist. Nat. 31. 7; Bochart, Hieroz. t. i., p. 872.

For the wickedness of them that dwell therein - As he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah; probably alluding to that.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Into barrenness, Heb. into saltness, which procures barrenness. See Deu 29:23; Jdg 9:45.

For the wickedness of them that dwell therein; he doth not inflict these judgments by choice, or without cause, but for the punishment of sin in some, and the prevention of it in others.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

A fruitful land into barrenness; literally, into saltness. The judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah is probably in the writer"s mind. For the wickedness of them that dwell therein. God does not capriciously withdraw his blessings from a land. If he turns a fruitful land into a barren one, we may be sure that the inhabitants have provoked him by their sins.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For - He doth not inflict these judgments without cause, but for the punishment of sin in some, and the prevention of it in others.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

into a salty waste To be like a salty land insofar as it does not produce fruit.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.