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.

[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.