Psalms 148:8

148:8 O fire and hail, snow and clouds, ¹ 

O stormy wind that carries out his orders, ² 

James 5:17-18

5:17 Elijah was a human being ³  like us, and he prayed earnestly ⁴  that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months! 5:18 Then ⁵  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 ⁶  to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time ⁷  they are prophesying. They ⁸  have power ⁹  to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want.

¹ tn In Ps 119:83 the noun refers to “smoke,” but here, where the elements of nature are addressed, the clouds, which resemble smoke, are probably in view.

² tn Heb “[that] does his word.”

³ 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.

⁴ tn Grk “he prayed with prayer” (using a Hebrew idiom to show intensity).

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

⁶ tn Or “authority.”

⁷ tn Grk “the days.”

⁸ 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.

⁹ tn Or “authority.”