Hosea 10:12

10:12 Sow righteousness for yourselves,

reap unfailing love.

Break up the unplowed ground for yourselves,

for it is time to seek the Lord,

until he comes and showers deliverance ¹  on you.

Hosea 14:5

14:5 I will be like the dew to Israel;

he will blossom like a lily,

he will send down his roots like a cedar of ²  Lebanon.

Ulangan 32:2

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew, ³ 

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

Ayub 29:23

29:23 They waited for me as people wait ⁴  for the rain,

and they opened their mouths ⁵ 

as for ⁶  the spring rains.

Mazmur 65:9

65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; ⁷ 

you make it rich and fertile ⁸ 

with overflowing streams full of water. ⁹ 

You provide grain for them, ¹⁰ 

for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 72:6

72:6 He ¹²  will descend like rain on the mown grass, ¹³ 

like showers that drench ¹⁴  the earth. ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 5:6

5:6 I will make it a wasteland;

no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, ¹⁶ 

and thorns and briers will grow there.

I will order the clouds

not to drop any rain on it.

Yesaya 32:15

32:15 This desolation will continue until new life is poured out on us from heaven. ¹⁷ 

Then the desert will become an orchard

and the orchard will be considered a forest. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 44:3

44:3 For I will pour water on the parched ground ¹⁹ 

and cause streams to flow ²⁰  on the dry land.

I will pour my spirit on your offspring

and my blessing on your children.

Yehezkiel 36:25

36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ²¹  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols.

Yoel 2:23-24

2:23 Citizens of Zion, ²²  rejoice!

Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! ²³ 

For he has given to you the early rains ²⁴  as vindication.

He has sent ²⁵  to you the rains –

both the early and the late rains ²⁶  as formerly.

2:24 The threshing floors are full of grain;

the vats overflow with fresh wine and olive oil.

Mikha 5:7

5:7 Those survivors from ²⁷  Jacob will live ²⁸ 

in the midst of many nations. ²⁹ 

They will be like the dew the Lord sends,

like the rain on the grass,

that does not hope for men to come

or wait around for humans to arrive. ³⁰ 

Zakharia 10:1

The Restoration of the True People

10:1 Ask the Lord for rain in the season of the late spring rains ³¹  – the Lord who causes thunderstorms – and he will give everyone showers of rain and green growth in the field.

[10:12]  ¹ tn Or “righteousness” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “justice.”

[14:5]  ² tn Heb “like Lebanon” (so KJV; also in the following verse). The phrase “a cedar of” does not appear in the Hebrew text; it is supplied in translation for clarity. Cf. TEV “the trees of Lebanon”; NRSV “the forests of Lebanon.”

[32:2]  ³ tn Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.

[29:23]  ⁴ tn The phrase “people wait for” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.

[29:23]  ⁵ sn The analogy is that they received his words eagerly as the dry ground opens to receive the rains.

[29:23]  ⁶ tn The כּ (kaf) preposition is to be supplied by analogy with the preceding phrase. This leaves a double proposition, “as for” (but see Job 29:2).

[65:9]  ⁷ tn The verb form is a Polel from שׁוּק (shuq, “be abundant”), a verb which appears only here and in Joel 2:24 and 3:13, where it is used in the Hiphil stem and means “overflow.”

[65:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”

[65:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “[with] a channel of God full of water.” The divine name is probably used here in a superlative sense to depict a very deep stream (“a stream fit for God,” as it were).

[65:9]  ¹⁰ tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.

[65:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for thus [referring to the provision of rain described in the first half of the verse] you prepare it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix attached to the verb “prepare” refers back to the “earth,” which is a feminine noun with regard to grammatical form.

[72:6]  ¹² tn That is, the king (see vv. 2, 4).

[72:6]  ¹³ tn The rare term zg refers to a sheep’s fleece in Deut 18:4 and Job 31:20, but to “mown” grass or crops here and in Amos 7:1.

[72:6]  ¹⁴ tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to be an otherwise unattested noun. Many prefer to emend the form to a verb from the root זָרַף (zaraf). BHS in textual note b on this verse suggests a Hiphil imperfect, third masculine plural יַזְרִיפוּ (yazrifu), while HALOT 283 s.v. *זרף prefers a Pilpel perfect, third masculine plural זִרְזְפוּ (zirzÿfu). The translation assumes the latter.

[72:6]  ¹⁵ sn The imagery of this verse compares the blessings produced by the king’s reign to fructifying rains that cause the crops to grow.

[5:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “it will not be pruned or hoed” (so NASB); ASV and NRSV both similar.

[32:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “until a spirit is emptied out on us from on high.” The words “this desolation will continue” are supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic purposes. The verb עָרָה (’arah), used here in the Niphal, normally means “lay bare, expose.” The term רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is often understood here as a reference to the divine spirit (cf. 44:3 and NASB, NIV, CEV, NLT), but it appears here without an article (cf. NRSV “a spirit”), pronominal suffix, or a genitive (such as “of the Lord”). The translation assumes that it carries an impersonal nuance “vivacity, vigor” in this context.

[32:15]  ¹⁸ sn The same statement appears in 29:17b, where, in conjunction with the preceding line, it appears to picture a reversal. Here it seems to depict supernatural growth. The desert will blossom into an orchard, and the trees of the orchard will multiply and grow tall, becoming a forest.

[44:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the thirsty.” Parallelism suggests that dry ground is in view (see “dry land” in the next line.)

[44:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and streams”; KJV “floods.” The verb “cause…to flow” is supplied in the second line for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[36:25]  ²¹ sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.

[2:23]  ²² tn Heb “sons of Zion.”

[2:23]  ²³ tn Heb “be glad in the Lord your God.”

[2:23]  ²⁴ tn Normally the Hebrew word הַמּוֹרֶה (hammoreh) means “the teacher,” but here and in Ps 84:7 it refers to “early rains.” Elsewhere the word for “early rains” is יוֹרֶה (yoreh). The phrase here הַמּוֹרֶה לִצְדָקָה (hammoreh litsdaqah) is similar to the expression “teacher of righteousness” (Heb., מוֹרֶה הַצֶּדֶק , moreh hatsedeq) found in the Dead Sea Scrolls referring to a particular charismatic leader, although the Qumran community seems not to have invoked this text in support of that notion.

[2:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “caused to come down.”

[2:23]  ²⁶ sn For half the year Palestine is generally dry. The rainy season begins with the early rains usually in late October to early December, followed by the latter rains in March and April. Without these rains productive farming would not be possible, as Joel’s original readers knew only too well.

[5:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the remnant of” (also in v. 8).

[5:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “will be.”

[5:7]  ²⁹ tn This could mean “(scattered) among the nations” (cf. CEV, NLT) or “surrounded by many nations” (cf. NRSV).

[5:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “that does not hope for man, and does not wait for the sons of men.”

[5:7]  sn Men wait eagerly for the dew and the rain, not vice versa. Just as the dew and rain are subject to the Lord, not men, so the remnant of Israel will succeed by the supernatural power of God and not need the support of other nations. There may even be a military metaphor here. Israel will overwhelm their enemies, just as the dew completely covers the grass (see 2 Sam 17:12). This interpretation would be consistent with the image of v. 7.

[10:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “the latter rain.” This expression refers to the last concentration of heavy rainfall in the spring of the year in Palestine, about March or April. Metaphorically and eschatologically (as here) the “latter rain” speaks of God’s outpouring of blessing in the end times (cf. Hos 6:3; Joel 2:21-25).