Psalms 107:34

107:34 and a fruitful land into a barren place, ¹ 

because of the sin of its inhabitants.

Psalms 107:40

107:40 He would pour ²  contempt upon princes,

and he made them wander in a wasteland with no road.

Deuteronomy 28:23-24

28:23 The ³  sky ⁴  above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Hosea 2:3

2:3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked,

and expose her like she was when she was born.

I will turn her land into a wilderness

and make her country a parched land,

so that I might kill ⁵  her with thirst.

Malachi 1:3

1:3 and rejected Esau. ⁶  I turned Esau’s ⁷  mountains into a deserted wasteland ⁸  and gave his territory ⁹  to the wild jackals.”

[107:34]  ¹ tn Heb “a salty land.”

[107:40]  ² tn The active participle is understood as past durative here, drawing attention to typical action in a past time frame. However, it could be taken as generalizing (in which case one should translate using the English present tense), in which case the psalmist moves from narrative to present reality. Perhaps the participial form appears because the statement is lifted from Job 12:21.

[28:23]  ³ tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

[28:23]  ⁴ tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[2:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and kill her with thirst.” The vav prefixed to the verb (וַהֲמִתִּיהָ, vahamittiha) introduces a purpose/result clause: “in order to make her die of thirst” (purpose) or “and thus make her die of thirst” (result).

[1:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “and I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated.” The context indicates this is technical covenant vocabulary in which “love” and “hate” are synonymous with “choose” and “reject” respectively (see Deut 7:8; Jer 31:3; Hos 3:1; 9:15; 11:1).

[1:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “I set his mountains as a desolation.”

[1:3]  ⁹ tn Or “inheritance” (so NIV, NLT).