Bible Strands
Psalms 107:4
Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no path to a city in which to dwell.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the redeemed community gathered from the four directions, situating their experience in the wilderness before detailing their physical depletion.
The words — תָּעוּ (ta.'U) means they wandered about, and מָצָאוּ (ma.Tza.'u) means they found, framing the verse’s contrast between aimless movement and failed discovery.
The thread — This motif of wilderness wandering and scattered wandering appears in Deuteronomy 32:10, Ezekiel 34:6, and Ezekiel 34:12.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of human aimlessness and the necessity of divine direction before seeking a place of rest.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 32:10 He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.
- Ezekiel 34:6 My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. They were scattered over the face of all the earth, with no one to search for them or seek them out.’
- Ezekiel 34:12 As a shepherd looks for his scattered sheep when he is among the flock, so I will look for My flock. I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
- Numbers 14:33 Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
- Genesis 21:14 Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.
- Job 12:24 He deprives the earth’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
- Psalms 107:40 He pours out contempt on the nobles and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
- Hebrews 11:38 The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.
- Numbers 32:13 The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation who had done evil in His sight was gone.
- Deuteronomy 8:15 He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.