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Psalm 84:6

The valley of Baca: balsam trees or tears

Hebrew emek ha-bakha: "the valley of the baka." Baka may be a shrub or tree of dry places (2 Samuel 5:23–24) or a play on bakhah, "weeping." The Greek and Latin chose weeping: "in the valley of tears" (Vulgate "in valle lacrimarum"), the source of the phrase "vale of tears."

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

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✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The psalm as first composedPsalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Psalter
Latin
  1. Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)c. AD 386–392, revised from the GreekTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
New Testament quotation

    Every witness, in order

    1. Psalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)

      The psalm as first composed

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. About forty Psalms manuscripts from Qumran, Masada and Nahal Hever (c. 2nd century BC – 1st century AD) are the oldest copies.

    2. c. AD 386–392, revised from the Greek

      Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      in valle lacrimarum, in loco quem posuit.

      Latin numbering: Psalm 83:7. Jerome revised this Latin Psalter from the Greek, so it is a witness to the Greek, not to the Hebrew.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      עֹבְרֵ֤י ׀ בְּעֵ֣מֶק הַ֭בָּכָא מַעְיָ֣ן יְשִׁית֑וּהוּ גַּם־בְּ֝רָכ֗וֹת יַעְטֶ֥ה מוֹרֶֽה׃

      Passing through the valley of the baka, they make it a spring; the early rain also covers it with blessings

      Hebrew numbering: Psalm 84:7. Hebrew counts the heading as verse 1.

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

    5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

      Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Psalter

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      En la vallée des pleurs, au lieu que le Seigneur a établi.

      Greek numbering: Psalm 83:7. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check); not checked against Rahlfs' critical edition (C check).

    What changed, and why

    The Masoretic spelling ends in aleph (bakha'), not he (bakhah, "weeping"), so the pun is in the sound, not the letters. Whatever the plant, the image is a dry valley that pilgrims turn into a place of springs. No location is known; the atlas does not place it.

    "Vale of tears" entered Christian prayer through the Salve Regina ("in hac lacrimarum valle"), an 11th-century Marian antiphon.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedThe Greek/Latin read "valley of tears."
    • Not independently verifiedThe valley of Baca can be located.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Psalm 84: How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place →"How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD." Even the sparrow and swallow have found a nest at God's altars. "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house." Pilgrims pass "through the valley of Baca" and make it a spring; "they go from strength to strength." "For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness."