Psalm 84 · a question people ask
What is "the valley of Weeping" (84:6), and where was it?
"Passing through the valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs. Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings" (84:6) (tap Weeping). In Hebrew the valley of Weeping is emeq habbakha', and the word bakha' is in this verse only. The lexicons don't agree on it. Strong's gives it as "weeping; Baca, a valley in Palestine", and the WEB has Weeping. Brown-Driver-Briggs gives it as "balsam-tree", the meaning it also gives for a word with the same letters that the WEB has as mulberry trees: "attack them in front of the mulberry trees" (2 Samuel 5:23). No other verse names this valley, so the Bible doesn't say where it was, and these notes don't place it on a map. What the verse does say is what the travelers make of it: "a place of springs" (84:6). Its autumn rain is moreh, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "(early) rain"; the Hebrew Bible has it three times, here and twice in Joel 2:23, where the WEB has "the early rain" (Joel 2:23).
The verses
“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage. Passing through the valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs. Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings.”
“When David inquired of the LORD, he said, “You shall not go up. Circle around behind them, and attack them in front of the mulberry trees.”
““Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD, your God; for he gives you the early rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down for you, the early rain and the latter rain, as before.”