1 Kings 18:36-39

18:36 When it was time for the evening offering, ¹  Elijah the prophet approached the altar ²  and prayed: “O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, prove ³  today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 18:37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are the true God ⁴  and that you are winning back their allegiance.” ⁵  18:38 Then fire from the Lord fell from the sky. ⁶  It consumed the offering, the wood, the stones, and the dirt, and licked up the water in the trench. 18:39 When all the people saw this, they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and said, “The Lord is the true God! ⁷  The Lord is the true God!”

Psalms 84:6

84:6 As they pass through the Baca Valley, ⁸ 

he provides a spring for them. ⁹ 

The rain ¹⁰  even covers it with pools of water. ¹¹ 

Psalms 107:35

107:35 As for his people, ¹²  he turned ¹³  a desert into a pool of water,

and a dry land into springs of water.

Isaiah 41:17-18

41:17 The oppressed and the poor look for water, but there is none;

their tongues are parched from thirst.

I, the Lord, will respond to their prayers; ¹⁴ 

I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

41:18 I will make streams flow down the slopes

and produce springs in the middle of the valleys.

I will turn the desert into a pool of water

and the arid land into springs.

Isaiah 43:19-20

43:19 “Look, I am about to do something new.

Now it begins to happen! ¹⁵  Do you not recognize ¹⁶  it?

Yes, I will make a road in the desert

and paths ¹⁷  in the wilderness.

43:20 The wild animals of the desert honor me,

the jackals and ostriches,

because I put water in the desert

and streams in the wilderness,

to quench the thirst of my chosen people,

Isaiah 48:21

48:21 They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions;

he makes water flow out of a rock for them;

he splits open a rock and water flows out.’ ¹⁸ 

[18:36]  ¹ tn Heb “at the offering up of the offering.”

[18:36]  ² tn The words “the altar” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[18:36]  ³ tn Heb “let it be known.”

[18:37]  ⁴ tn Heb “the God.”

[18:37]  ⁵ tn Heb “that you are turning their heart[s] back.”

[18:38]  ⁶ tn The words “from the sky” are added for stylistic reasons.

[18:39]  ⁷ tn Heb “the God” (the phrase occurs twice in this verse).

[84:6]  ⁸ tn The translation assumes that the Hebrew phrase עֵמֶק הַבָּכָא (’emeq habbakha’) is the name of an otherwise unknown arid valley through which pilgrims to Jerusalem passed. The term בָּכָא (bakha’) may be the name of a particular type of plant or shrub that grew in this valley. O. Borowski (Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 130) suggests it is the black mulberry. Some take the phrase as purely metaphorical and relate בָּכָא to the root בָּכָה (bakhah, “to weep”). In this case one might translate, “the valley of weeping” or “the valley of affliction.”

[84:6]  ⁹ tc The MT reads “a spring they make it,” but this makes little sense. Many medieval Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, understand God to be the subject and the valley to be the object, “he [God] makes it [the valley] [into] a spring.”

[84:6]  ¹⁰ tn This rare word may refer to the early (or autumn) rains (see Joel 2:23).

[84:6]  ¹¹ tc The MT reads בְּרָכוֹת (bÿrakhot, “blessings”) but the preceding reference to a “spring” favors an emendation to בְּרֵכוֹת (bÿrekhot, “pools”).

[107:35]  ¹² tn The words “As for his people” are not included in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity. The psalmist contrasts God’s judgment on his enemies with his blessing of his people. See the note on the word “enemies” in v. 39 for further discussion.

[107:35]  ¹³ tn The verbal form appears to be a preterite, which is most naturally taken as narrational. See the note on the word “turned” in v. 33.

[41:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “will answer them” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[43:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sprouts up”; NASB “will spring forth.”

[43:19]  ¹⁶ tn Or “know” (KJV, ASV); NASB “be aware of”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “perceive.”

[43:19]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew texts has “streams,” probably under the influence of v. 20. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has נתיבות (“paths”).

[48:21]  ¹⁸ sn The translation above (present tense) assumes that this verse describes God’s provision for returning Babylonian exiles (see v. 20; 35:6; 49:10) in terms reminiscent of the Exodus from Egypt (see Exod 17:6).