Bible Strands
Psalms 113:9
He settles the barren woman in her home as a joyful mother to her children. Hallelujah!
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses a corporate worshiping assembly while cataloging God’s consistent reversal of human status. This declaration concludes a sequence describing how God elevates the lowly and seats them among leaders.
The words — The verb מֽוֹשִׁיבִי (mo.shi.Vi) literally means "causes to dwell" or "settles," paired with עֲקֶרֶת ('a.Ke.ret), meaning "barren woman." These terms anchor the verse in a specific, physical act of household restoration.
The thread — This pattern of God settling the isolated into families appears in Psalms 68:6 and connects to Genesis 30:22, where God opens Rachel’s womb. The birth of Isaac to Abraham in Genesis 21:5 further demonstrates this same divine intervention against biological impossibility.
Why it lands — The text states that God places a barren woman in her home as a joyful mother to her children. A reader must recognize that this restoration originates from divine action alone and respond with the explicit command to praise.
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
He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.
Cross-references
- Psalms 68:6 God settles the lonely in families; He leads the prisoners out to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.
- Genesis 21:5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
- Genesis 30:22 Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,
- 1 Samuel 2:5 The well-fed hire themselves out for food, but the starving hunger no more. The barren woman gives birth to seven, but she who has many sons pines away.
- Isaiah 54:1 “Shout for joy, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth in song and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD.
- Luke 1:13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.
- Genesis 25:21 Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
- Galatians 4:27 For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”