Lexical Summary tsechichah: Dryness, parched land Original Word: צְחִיחָה Strong's Exhaustive Concordance dry land Feminine of tschiyach; a parched region, i.e. The desert -- dry land. see HEBREW tschiyach NAS Exhaustive Concordance Word Originfrom tsachach Definition scorched land NASB Translation parched land (1). Brown-Driver-Briggs צְחִיחָה noun feminine scorched land; — ׳צ Psalm 68:7. Topical Lexicon Lexical and Biblical Setting צְחִיחָה (tsəḥîḥâ) paints the picture of a landscape blasted by the sun—parched, cracked, and lifeless. Although it occurs only once in the Hebrew canon, the noun gathers to itself the entire biblical theology of wilderness, exile, and divine judgment. Its single appearance in Psalm 68:6 anchors it to the psalmist’s celebration of God’s salvific power over against the futility of human rebellion. Psalm 68:6 in Context “God settles the lonely in families; He leads out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.” (Psalm 68:6) David’s victory hymn traces a broad arc—from the Exodus to the conquest of Canaan and the establishment of Zion. Within that sweep the word “sun-scorched land” (tsəḥîḥâ) supplies a sobering counterpoint: while the covenant LORD liberates captives and plants the solitary in households, the defiant find themselves exiled to a barren, burning wasteland. In Israel’s agrarian society, the image carried immediate force. Arable ground meant survival; scorched soil spelled disaster. By using the harshest term available for drought-stricken earth, the psalm underlines the ultimate sterility of opposing God’s reign. Geographical and Environmental Imagery The climate of the southern Levant alternates between life-giving rains and relentless sun. Terraced hills burst with green after the early and latter rains (Deuteronomy 11:14), yet a few rainless seasons can reduce them to dust. The word צְחִיחָה therefore evokes: When the psalmist assigns the rebellious to such terrain, he evokes a lived reality familiar to every ancient Israelite: covenant obedience brings fertile abundance; rejection invites ecological and social disintegration. Theological Significance 1. Judgment as Reversing Creation Genesis opens with earth “formless and void”; Eden becomes a garden only when God waters it (Genesis 2:5–6). Dryness, then, is creation running backward—life devolving to chaos. To consign rebels to צְחִיחָה is to let them taste un-creation. 2. Exile Motif Isaiah warns, “Your land is desolate” (Isaiah 1:7); Jeremiah depicts Judah as “a land not sown” (Jeremiah 2:2). Though those prophets employ different vocabulary, the idea is identical: estrangement from God is exile into barrenness. Psalm 68:6 condenses that prophetic theme into a single noun. 3. Contrast with Divine Hospitality The verse sets three clauses in parallel: familial placement, jubilant liberation, and parched banishment. The parallelism highlights the covenant’s two paths—blessing or curse (Deuteronomy 30:19). The scorching sun that withers rebels intensifies the glory of God’s sheltering embrace of the humble. Comparative Scriptural Imagery of Dryness • “They wandered in desert wastelands” (Psalm 107:4) parallels the fate of the rebellious. Christological Fulfillment Tsəḥîḥâ’s threat is neutralized in the gospel. At Calvary the obedient Son experiences the scorching judgment on behalf of rebels (“I thirst,” John 19:28), so that those once condemned to a dry land may “drink without cost from the spring of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6). By absorbing the curse, Christ opens the door for the former outcasts of Psalm 68:6 to join the procession “with singing.” Pastoral Application and Ministry Implications 1. Evangelism among the Spiritually Barren Church outreach often encounters souls languishing in emotional and moral drought. Psalm 68:6 legitimizes direct proclamation: rebellion ends in barrenness; surrender leads to familial belonging. 2. Prison and Re-entry Ministries Because the verse explicitly contrasts prisoners set free with rebels left desolate, it motivates practical initiatives—chaplaincy, halfway houses, and mentorship—to embody the divine pattern of release and restoration. 3. Worship and Counseling Liturgically, Psalm 68 encourages the congregation to celebrate God’s power to reverse alienation. In counseling, tsəḥîḥâ offers a diagnostic tool: symptoms of dryness—despair, isolation, compulsive autonomy—signal deeper resistance to God that only repentance and trust can cure. Practical Lessons for Discipleship • Cultivate dependence on the “rain” of the Word (Isaiah 55:10–11); neglect leads inevitably to spiritual drought. Summary צְחִיחָה stands as a one-word indictment of autonomy from God and a vivid summons to seek His refreshing grace. Though limited in occurrence, its theological reach spans from Eden’s lushness through Israel’s wilderness wanderings to the living water offered by Jesus Christ and, finally, to the river of life coursing through the New Jerusalem. Forms and Transliterations צְחִיחָֽה׃ צחיחה׃ ṣə·ḥî·ḥāh ṣəḥîḥāh tzechiChahLinks Interlinear Greek • Interlinear Hebrew • Strong's Numbers • Englishman's Greek Concordance • Englishman's Hebrew Concordance • Parallel TextsEnglishman's Concordance Psalm 68:6 HEB: ס֝וֹרֲרִ֗ים שָׁכְנ֥וּ צְחִיחָֽה׃ NAS: dwell in a parched land. KJV: dwell in a dry [land]. INT: the rebellious dwell A parched 1 Occurrence |
    |