A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
Ver. 34. A fruitful land into barrenness] Heb. saltness. See Luk 14:34-35 Deu 29:23 Judges 9:45. Salt breedeth barrenness, by eating up the fat and moisture of the earth. Some think the psalmist here alludeth to Sodom and her sisters turned into the Red Sea.
For the wickedness of them that dwell therein] Hereof Judea is at this day a noble instance (besides many parts of Asia and Africa, once very fruitful, now, since they became Mahometan, dry and desert). Judea, saith one, hath now only some few parcels of rich ground found in it; that men may guess the goodness of the cloth by the fineness of the shreds. Greece, which was once Sol et sal gentium, saith another, terrarum flos, fens literarum, nunc vel Priamo miseranda manus; - nunc in Graecia desideramus Graeciam; it is nothing like the place it was once.