Genesis 2:5

2:5 Now ¹  no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field ²  had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. ³ 

Job 28:5

28:5 The earth, from which food comes,

is overturned below as though by fire; ⁴ 

Psalms 104:14-17

104:14 He provides grass ⁵  for the cattle,

and crops for people to cultivate, ⁶ 

so they can produce food from the ground, ⁷ 

104:15 as well as wine that makes people feel so good, ⁸ 

and so they can have oil to make their faces shine, ⁹ 

as well as food that sustains people’s lives. ¹⁰ 

104:16 The trees of the Lord ¹¹  receive all the rain they need, ¹² 

the cedars of Lebanon which he planted,

104:17 where the birds make nests,

near the evergreens in which the herons live. ¹³ 

Psalms 147:8

147:8 He covers ¹⁴  the sky with clouds,

provides the earth with rain,

and causes grass to grow on the hillsides. ¹⁵ 

Matthew 6:30

6:30 And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, ¹⁶  which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ¹⁷  won’t he clothe you even more, ¹⁸  you people of little faith?

Hebrews 6:7

6:7 For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on ¹⁹  it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God.

¹ tn Heb “Now every sprig of the field before it was.” The verb forms, although appearing to be imperfects, are technically preterites coming after the adverb טֶּרֶם (terem). The word order (conjunction + subject + predicate) indicates a disjunctive clause, which provides background information for the following narrative (as in 1:2). Two negative clauses are given (“before any sprig…”, and “before any cultivated grain” existed), followed by two causal clauses explaining them, and then a positive circumstantial clause is given – again dealing with water as in 1:2 (water would well up).

² tn The first term, שִׂיחַ (siakh), probably refers to the wild, uncultivated plants (see Gen 21:15; Job 30:4,7); whereas the second, עֵשֶׂב (’esev), refers to cultivated grains. It is a way of saying: “back before anything was growing.”

³ tn The two causal clauses explain the first two disjunctive clauses: There was no uncultivated, general growth because there was no rain, and there were no grains because there was no man to cultivate the soil.

⁴ sn The verse has been properly understood, on the whole, as comparing the earth above and all its produce with the upheaval down below.

⁵ tn Heb “causes the grass to sprout up.”

⁶ tn Heb “for the service of man” (see Gen 2:5).

⁷ tn Heb “to cause food to come out from the earth.”

⁸ tn Heb “and wine [that] makes the heart of man happy.”

⁹ tn Heb “to make [the] face shine from oil.” The Hebrew verb צָהַל (tsahal, “to shine”) occurs only here in the OT. It appears to be an alternate form of צָהַר (tsahar), a derivative from צָהָרִים (tsaharim, “noon”).

¹⁰ tn Heb “and food [that] sustains the heart of man.”

¹¹ sn The trees of the Lord are the cedars of Lebanon (see the next line), which are viewed as special because of their great size and grandeur. The Lebanon forest was viewed elsewhere in the OT as the “garden of God” (see Ezek 31:8).

¹² tn Heb “are satisfied,” which means here that they receive abundant rain (see v. 13).

¹³ tn Heb “[the] heron [in the] evergreens [is] its home.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “the one who covers.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “hills.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “grass of the field.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “into the oven.” The expanded translation “into the fire to heat the oven” has been used to avoid misunderstanding; most items put into modern ovens are put there to be baked, not burned.

¹⁸ sn The phrase even more is a typical form of rabbinic argumentation, from the lesser to the greater. If God cares for the little things, surely he will care for the more important things.

¹⁹ tn Grk “comes upon.”