Psalms 84:6

As they pass through the Baca Valley, ¹  he provides a spring for them. ²  The rain ³  even covers it with pools of water. ⁴ 

As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring; The early rain also covers it with blessings.

When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs, where pools of blessing collect after the rains!

They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!

Going through the valley of balsam-trees, they make it a place of springs; it is clothed with blessings by the early rain.

As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.

As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools.

As they pass through the Baca Valley, ¹  he provides a spring for them. ²  The rain ³  even covers it with pools of water. ⁴ 

¹ tn The translation assumes that the Hebrew phrase עֵמֶק הַבָּכָא (’emeq habbakha’) is the name of an otherwise unknown arid valley through which pilgrims to Jerusalem passed. The term בָּכָא (bakha’) may be the name of a particular type of plant or shrub that grew in this valley. O. Borowski (Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 130) suggests it is the black mulberry. Some take the phrase as purely metaphorical and relate בָּכָא to the root בָּכָה (bakhah, “to weep”). In this case one might translate, “the valley of weeping” or “the valley of affliction.”

² tc The MT reads “a spring they make it,” but this makes little sense. Many medieval Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, understand God to be the subject and the valley to be the object, “he [God] makes it [the valley] [into] a spring.”

³ tn This rare word may refer to the early (or autumn) rains (see Joel 2:23).

⁴ tc The MT reads בְּרָכוֹת (bÿrakhot, “blessings”) but the preceding reference to a “spring” favors an emendation to בְּרֵכוֹת (bÿrekhot, “pools”).

sn Pools of water. Because water is so necessary for life, it makes an apt symbol for divine favor and blessing. As the pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem, God provided for their physical needs and gave them a token of his favor and of the blessings awaiting them at the temple.