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Psalms 107:3

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

And gathered them out of the lands - Though many Jews returned into Jerusalem from various parts of the world, under the reigns of Darius Hystaspes, Artaxerxes, and Alexander the Great; yet this prophecy has its completion only under the Gospel, when all the ends of the earth hear the salvation of God.

Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

And gathered them out of the lands - The countries where they were scattered. In the times of the captivity the people were not all taken to one place, or did not all abide in one place. In the long exile - of seventy years - in Babylon, they would naturally be much scattered in the different provinces; and the attempt to collect them together, to restore them again to their native land, might be attended with much difficulty.

From the east … - From all quarters; from the places where they were scattered abroad. That is, one taking his position in Babylon would see them dispersed from that place as a center into all the surrounding country.

And from the south - Margin, as in Hebrew, “from the sea.” In general, in the Old Testament, the word “sea” is used for the west, because the western boundary of the land of Palestine was the Mediterranean Sea. Compare Psalm 139:9. But the supposed position of the speaker here is “Babylon,” and on that account the south might be fitly designated by the word “sea;” as, on the south of Babylon, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean would be soon reached.

Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary
In these verses there is reference to the deliverance from Egypt, and perhaps that from Babylon: but the circumstances of travellers in those countries are also noted. It is scarcely possible to conceive the horrors suffered by the hapless traveller, when crossing the trackless sands, exposed to the burning rays of the sum. The words describe their case whom the Lord has redeemed from the bondage of Satan; who pass through the world as a dangerous and dreary wilderness, often ready to faint through troubles, fears, and temptations. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, after God, and communion with him, shall be filled with the goodness of his house, both in grace and glory.