Psalm 107:33-41
New Catholic Bible
33 [a]He turns rivers into wasteland,
springs of water into parched ground,[b]
34 and fertile land into a salt waste,
because of the wickedness of those who live there.[c]
35 He turns the wasteland into pools of water
and the parched ground into bubbling springs.
36 [d]There he provides the hungry with a home,
and they build a city where they can settle.
37 They sow fields and plant vineyards
that yield crops for the harvest.
38 He blesses them and they greatly increase in number,
and he does not let their cattle decrease.
39 Eventually their numbers diminish and they are humbled
because of oppression, adversity, and affliction;
40 he who pours forth his contempt on princes
makes them wander in trackless wastes,
41 while he raises the needy from their misery
and increases their families like flocks.
Footnotes
- Psalm 107:33 The psalmist evokes God’s deliverance of his people by a “reversal of fortune.”
- Psalm 107:33 Imagery like that found in Isa 35:6f; 41:18; 42:15; 43:19f; 50:2.
- Psalm 107:34 Allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah (see Gen 13:10; 19; Deut 29:22; Sir 39:23). Salt was cast on cities that had been destroyed (see Jdg 9:45).
- Psalm 107:36 These verses are written in general terms; however, scholars believe the psalmist is most likely referring here to the settlement and development of the Promised Land (vv. 36ff), the hardships during the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions (v. 39), the humiliation and exile of the last kings of Judah (v. 40), and the restoration of Zion after the Exile (v. 41).
