68:9 O God, you cause abundant showers to fall 2 on your chosen people. 3
When they 4 are tired, you sustain them, 5
32:15 This desolation will continue until new life is poured out on us from heaven. 6
Then the desert will become an orchard
and the orchard will be considered a forest. 7
32:20 you will be blessed,
you who plant seed by all the banks of the streams, 8
you who let your ox and donkey graze. 9
44:3 For I will pour water on the parched ground 10
and cause streams to flow 11 on the dry land.
I will pour my spirit on your offspring
and my blessing on your children.
3:10 “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse 12 so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord who rules over all, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no room for it all.
1 tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”
2 tn The verb נוּף (nuf, “cause rain to fall”) is a homonym of the more common נוּף (“brandish”).
3 tn Heb “[on] your inheritance.” This refers to Israel as God’s specially chosen people (see Pss 28:9; 33:12; 74:2; 78:62, 71; 79:1; 94:5, 14; 106:40). Some take “your inheritance” with what follows, but the vav (ו) prefixed to the following word (note וְנִלְאָה, vÿnil’ah) makes this syntactically unlikely.
4 tn Heb “it [is],” referring to God’s “inheritance.”
5 tn Heb “it,” referring to God’s “inheritance.”
6 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.
7 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.
8 tn Heb “by all the waters.”
9 tn Heb “who set free the foot of the ox and donkey”; NIV “letting your cattle and donkeys range free.”
10 tn Heb “the thirsty.” Parallelism suggests that dry ground is in view (see “dry land” in the next line.)
11 tn Heb “and streams”; KJV “floods.” The verb “cause…to flow” is supplied in the second line for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
12 tn The Hebrew phrase בֵּית הָאוֹצָר (bet ha’otsar, here translated “storehouse”) refers to a kind of temple warehouse described more fully in Nehemiah (where the term לִשְׁכָּה גְדוֹלָה [lishkah gÿdolah, “great chamber”] is used) as a place for storing grain, frankincense, temple vessels, wine, and oil (Neh 13:5). Cf. TEV “to the Temple.”