Psalms 107:33
31 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion and His wonders to the sons of men.
32 Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people and praise Him in the council of the elders.
He turns rivers into deserts, springs of water into thirsty ground,
34 and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.
35 He turns a desert into pools of water and a dry land into flowing springs.
This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- He turns rivers into deserts, springs of water into thirsty ground,
- KJV
- He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground;
- WEB
- He turns rivers into a desert, water springs into a thirsty ground,
- ASV
- He turneth rivers into a wilderness, And watersprings into a thirsty ground;
- DARBY
- He maketh rivers into a wilderness, and water-springs into dry ground;
- BLB
- He turns rivers into a wilderness, and outpourings of waters into thirsty ground,
- ÅB
- Han gjorde elver til en ørken og vannkilder til et tørstig land,
- OTB
- Han gjør elver om til en ørken,
Og vannkilder til uttørket land; - B1930
- Han gjorde elver til en ørken og vannkilder til et tørstig land,
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Isaiah 42:15
I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into dry land and drain the marshes.
Read in contextIsaiah 50:2
Why was no one there when I arrived? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem you? Or do I lack the strength to deliver you? Behold, My rebuke dries up the sea; I turn the rivers into a desert; the fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.
Read in contextAmos 4:7–8
“I also withheld the rain from you when the harvest was three months away. I sent rain on one city but withheld it from another. One field received rain; another without rain withered.
Read in contextZephaniah 2:9
Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah— a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”
Read in contextIsaiah 44:27
who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’
Read in contextZephaniah 2:13
And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; He will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as a desert.
Read in contextNahum 1:4
He rebukes the sea and dries it up; He makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon wilts.
Read in contextPsalms 74:15
You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
Read in context