Jeremiah 14:22

14:22 Do any of the worthless idols ¹  of the nations cause rain to fall?

Do the skies themselves send showers?

Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? ² 

So we put our hopes in you ³ 

because you alone do all this.”

Deuteronomy 11:13-14

11:13 Now, if you pay close attention ⁴  to my commandments that I am giving you today and love ⁵  the Lord your God and serve him with all your mind and being, ⁶  11:14 then he promises, ⁷  “I will send rain for your land ⁸  in its season, the autumn and the spring rains, ⁹  so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil.

Deuteronomy 28:12

28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; ¹⁰  you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.

Deuteronomy 28:1

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed ¹¹  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ¹²  you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.

Deuteronomy 17:1

17:1 You must not sacrifice to him ¹³  a bull or sheep that has a blemish or any other defect, because that is considered offensive ¹⁴  to the Lord your God.

Job 5:10

5:10 he gives ¹⁵  rain on the earth, ¹⁶ 

and sends ¹⁷  water on the fields; ¹⁸ 

Job 36:27-28

36:27 He draws up drops of water;

they distill ¹⁹  the rain into its mist, ²⁰ 

36:28 which the clouds pour down

and shower on humankind abundantly.

Job 38:37

38:37 Who by wisdom can count the clouds,

and who can tip over ²¹  the water jars of heaven,

Psalms 147:8

147:8 He covers ²²  the sky with clouds,

provides the earth with rain,

and causes grass to grow on the hillsides. ²³ 

Joel 2:23

2:23 Citizens of Zion, ²⁴  rejoice!

Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! ²⁵ 

For he has given to you the early rains ²⁶  as vindication.

He has sent ²⁷  to you the rains –

both the early and the late rains ²⁸  as formerly.

Amos 4:7

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. ²⁹ 

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field ³⁰  would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

Zechariah 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.

Matthew 5:45

5:45 so that you may be like ³²  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Acts 14:17

14:17 yet he did not leave himself without a witness by doing good, ³³  by giving you rain from heaven ³⁴  and fruitful seasons, satisfying you ³⁵  with food and your hearts with joy.” ³⁶ 

James 5:7

Patience in Suffering

5:7 So be patient, brothers and sisters, ³⁷  until the Lord’s return. ³⁸  Think of how the farmer waits ³⁹  for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient ⁴⁰  for it until it receives the early and late rains.

James 5:17-18

5:17 Elijah was a human being ⁴¹  like us, and he prayed earnestly ⁴²  that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months! 5:18 Then ⁴³  he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest.

Revelation 11:6

11:6 These two have the power ⁴⁴  to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time ⁴⁵  they are prophesying. They ⁴⁶  have power ⁴⁷  to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want.

[14:22]  ¹ tn The word הֶבֶל (hevel), often translated “vanities”, is a common pejorative epithet for idols or false gods. See already in 8:19 and 10:8.

[14:22]  ² tn Heb “Is it not you, O Lord our God?” The words “who does” are supplied in the translation for English style.

[14:22]  ³ tn The rhetorical negatives are balanced by a rhetorical positive.

[11:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “if hearing, you will hear.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute to emphasize the verbal idea. The translation renders this emphasis with the word “close.”

[11:13]  ⁵ tn Again, the Hebrew term אָהַב (’ahav) draws attention to the reciprocation of divine love as a condition or sign of covenant loyalty (cf. Deut 6:5).

[11:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[11:14]  ⁷ tn The words “he promises” do not appear in the Hebrew text but are needed in the translation to facilitate the transition from the condition (v. 13) to the promise and make it clear that the Lord is speaking the words of vv. 14-15.

[11:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “the rain of your land.” In this case the genitive (modifying term) indicates the recipient of the rain.

[11:14]  ⁹ sn The autumn and the spring rains. The “former” (יוֹרֶה, yoreh) and “latter” (מַלְקוֹשׁ, malqosh) rains come in abundance respectively in September/October and March/April. Planting of most crops takes place before the former rains fall and the harvests follow the latter rains.

[28:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

[28:1]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

[28:1]  ¹² tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

[17:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “to the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[17:1]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “an abomination”; cf. NAB) describes persons, things, or practices offensive to ritual or moral order. See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:314-18; see also the note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.

[5:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “who gives.” The participle continues the doxology here. But the article is necessary because of the distance between this verse and the reference to God.

[5:10]  ¹⁶ tn In both halves of the verse the literal rendering would be “upon the face of the earth” and “upon the face of the fields.”

[5:10]  ¹⁷ tn The second participle is simply coordinated to the first and therefore does not need the definite article repeated (see GKC 404 §126.b).

[5:10]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew term חוּצוֹת (khutsot) basically means “outside,” or what is outside. It could refer to streets if what is meant is outside the house; but it refers to fields here (parallel to the more general word) because it is outside the village. See Ps 144:13 for the use of the expression for “countryside.” The LXX gives a much wider interpretation: “what is under heaven.”

[36:27]  ¹⁹ tn The verb means “to filter; to refine,” and so a plural subject with the drops of water as the subject will not work. So many read the singular, “he distills.”

[36:27]  ²⁰ tn This word עֵד (’ed) occurs also in Gen 2:6. The suggestion has been that instead of a mist it represents an underground watercourse that wells up to water the ground.

[38:37]  ²¹ tn The word actually means “to cause to lie down.”

[147:8]  ²² tn Heb “the one who covers.”

[147:8]  ²³ tn Heb “hills.”

[2:23]  ²⁴ tn Heb “sons of Zion.”

[2:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “be glad in the Lord your God.”

[2:23]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ tn Heb “caused to come down.”

[2:23]  ²⁸ 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.

[4:7]  ²⁹ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

[4:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.

[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).

[5:45]  ³² tn Grk “be sons of your Father in heaven.” Here, however, the focus is not on attaining a relationship (becoming a child of God) but rather on being the kind of person who shares the characteristics of God himself (a frequent meaning of the Semitic idiom “son of”). See L&N 58.26.

[14:17]  ³³ tn The participle ἀγαθουργῶν (agaqourgwn) is regarded as indicating means here, parallel to the following participles διδούς (didou") and ἐμπιπλῶν (empiplwn). This is the easiest way to understand the Greek structure. Semantically, the first participle is a general statement, followed by two participles giving specific examples of doing good.

[14:17]  ³⁴ tn Or “from the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[14:17]  ³⁵ tn Grk “satisfying [filling] your hearts with food and joy.” This is an idiomatic expression; it strikes the English reader as strange to speak of “filling one’s heart with food.” Thus the additional direct object “you” has been supplied, separating the two expressions somewhat: “satisfying you with food and your hearts with joy.”

[14:17]  ³⁶ sn God’s general sovereignty and gracious care in the creation are the way Paul introduces the theme of the goodness of God. He was trying to establish monotheism here. It is an OT theme (Gen 8:22; Ps 4:7; 145:15-16; 147:8-9; Isa 25:6; Jer 5:24) which also appears in the NT (Luke 12:22-34).

[5:7]  ³⁷ tn Grk “brothers”; this phrase occurs again three times in the paragraph. See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[5:7]  ³⁸ tn Or “advent”; or “coming” (also in v. 8).

[5:7]  ³⁹ tn Grk “Behold! The farmer waits.”

[5:7]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “being patient.”

[5:17]  ⁴¹ tn Although it is certainly true that Elijah was a “man,” here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") has been translated as “human being” because the emphasis in context is not on Elijah’s masculine gender, but on the common humanity he shared with the author and the readers.

[5:17]  ⁴² tn Grk “he prayed with prayer” (using a Hebrew idiom to show intensity).

[5:18]  ⁴³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events.

[11:6]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “authority.”

[11:6]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “the days.”

[11:6]  ⁴⁶ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[11:6]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “authority.”