Whose house I have made - God had appointed its home in the desert.
And the barren land his dwellings - Margin, as in Hebrew "salt places." Such places were usually barren. Psalm 107:34, "he turneth a fruitful land into barrenness." Hebrew "saltness." Thus, Virgil, Geor. ii. 238-240:
Salsa antem tellus, et quae, perhibetur amara.
Frugibus infelix: ea nec mansuescit arando;
Nec Baccho genus, aut pomis sua nomina servat.
Compare Pliny, Nat. His. 31, 7, Deuteronomy 29:23.

Whose house - Habitation, or place of resort.
The barren land - מלחה melechah, the salt land, or salt places, as in the margin. See above.

Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the (f) barren land his dwellings.
(f) That is, the barren ground where no good fruit grows.

Whose house I have made the wilderness,.... Appointed that to be his place of residence, as being agreeable to his nature, at a distance from men, and in the less danger of being brought into subjection by them. Such were the deserts of Arabia; where, as Xenophon (n) relates, were many of these creatures, and which he represents as very swift: and Leo Africanus (o) says, great numbers of them are found in deserts, and on the borders of deserts; hence said to be used to the wilderness Jeremiah 2:24;
and the barren land his dwellings; not entirely barren, for then it could not live there; but comparatively, with respect to land that is fruitful: or "salt land" (p); for, as Pliny (q) says, every place where salt is, is barren.
(n) De Expedition. Cyri, l. 1. (o) Descriptio Africae, l. 9. p. 752. (p) "salsuginem", Montanus; "salsuginosam terram", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (q) Nat. Hist. l. 31. c. 7.

barren--literally, "salt," that is, unfruitful. (So Psalm 107:34, Margin.)