38:22 Have you entered the storehouse 6 of the snow,
or seen the armory 7 of the hail,
65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; 8
you make it rich and fertile 9
with overflowing streams full of water. 10
You provide grain for them, 11
for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. 12
65:10 You saturate 13 its furrows,
and soak 14 its plowed ground. 15
With rain showers you soften its soil, 16
and make its crops grow. 17
65:11 You crown the year with your good blessings, 18
and you leave abundance in your wake. 19
65:12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture, 20
and the hills are clothed with joy. 21
65:13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,
and the valleys are covered with grain.
They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.
135:7 He causes the clouds to arise from the end of the earth,
makes lightning bolts accompany the rain,
and brings the wind out of his storehouses.
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.
1 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.
2 tn Heb “the rain of your land.” In this case the genitive (modifying term) indicates the recipient of the rain.
3 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.
4 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
5 tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural.
6 sn Snow and ice are thought of as being in store, brought out by God for specific purposes, such as times of battle (see Josh 10:11; Exod 9:2ff.; Isa 28:17; Isa 30:30; and Ps 18:12 [13]).
7 tn The same Hebrew term (אוֹצָר, ’otsar), has been translated “storehouse” in the first line and “armory” in the second. This has been done for stylistic variation, but also because “hail,” as one of God’s “weapons” (cf. the following verse) suggests military imagery; in this context the word refers to God’s “ammunition dump” where he stockpiles hail.
8 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.”
9 tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”
10 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).
11 tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.
12 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.
13 tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].
14 tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”
15 tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”
16 tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.
17 tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.
18 tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural blessings.
19 tn Heb “and your paths drip with abundance.”
20 tn Heb “drip.”
21 tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who see it.
22 tn Heb “sons of Zion.”
23 tn Heb “be glad in the
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.
25 tn Heb “caused to come down.”
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.