Psalms 84:6

6. Valley of Baca Valley of weeping, or lamentation. That there was a valley of this name would appear from the manner of referring to it, and also from the use of the definite article, הבכא , ( the Baca.) But it is not the head of the valley of Rephaim, which Josephus ( Ant., Psalms 7:4) and the Septuagint (in 2 Samuel 5:23) have called “the place of weeping,” nor the Bochim near Bethel, of Judges 2:1; Judges 2:4-5. It must have been some road, or section of a road, notable in the pilgrim routes, or in the route of the returning exiles, (see Jeremiah 31:8-9; Jeremiah 50:4-5,) painful to travel and specially arid and waste. Yet even this, to the devout and joyful pilgrim, would be made delightful, as if filled with fountains and covered with verdure.

The rain also filleth the pools Instead of “pools,” read blessings, as in 2 Chronicles 20:26; instead of “filleth,” read covereth; and for “rain,” understand the early, or autumnal rains, (beginning with November,) which prepare the ground for the seed, as in Joel 2:23. The sense is, The early rain, which quickens the parched ground into fertility, covereth the “valley of weeping” with blessings. In Palestine there is little rain from the last of April to the first of November.