1 Kings 18:40-45

18:40 Elijah told them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Don’t let even one of them escape!” So they seized them, and Elijah led them down to the Kishon Valley and executed ¹  them there.

18:41 Then Elijah told Ahab, “Go on up and eat and drink, for the sound of a heavy rainstorm can be heard.” ²  18:42 So Ahab went on up to eat and drink, while Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel. He bent down toward the ground and put his face between his knees. 18:43 He told his servant, “Go on up and look in the direction of the sea.” So he went on up, looked, and reported, “There is nothing.” ³  Seven times Elijah sent him to look. ⁴  18:44 The seventh time the servant ⁵  said, “Look, a small cloud, the size of the palm of a man’s hand, is rising up from the sea.” Elijah ⁶  then said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up the chariots and go down, so that the rain won’t overtake you.’” ⁷  18:45 Meanwhile the sky was covered with dark clouds, the wind blew, and there was a heavy rainstorm. Ahab rode toward ⁸  Jezreel.

Job 37:11-14

37:11 He loads the clouds with moisture; ⁹ 

he scatters his lightning through the clouds.

37:12 The clouds ¹⁰  go round in circles,

wheeling about according to his plans,

to carry out ¹¹  all that he commands them

over the face of the whole inhabited world.

37:13 Whether it is for punishment ¹²  for his land,

or whether it is for mercy,

he causes it to find its mark. ¹³ 

37:14 “Pay attention to this, Job!

Stand still and consider the wonders God works.

Psalms 68:9

68:9 O God, you cause abundant showers to fall ¹⁴  on your chosen people. ¹⁵ 

When they ¹⁶  are tired, you sustain them, ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 5:24

5:24 They do not say to themselves, ¹⁸ 

“Let us revere the Lord our God.

It is he who gives us the autumn rains and the spring rains at the proper time.

It is he who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.” ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 14:22

14:22 Do any of the worthless idols ²⁰  of the nations cause rain to fall?

Do the skies themselves send showers?

Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? ²¹ 

So we put our hopes in you ²² 

because you alone do all this.”

Ezekiel 34:26

34:26 I will turn them and the regions around my hill into a blessing. I will make showers come down in their season; they will be showers that bring blessing. ²³ 

Hosea 2:21-22

Agricultural Fertility Restored to the Repentant Nation

2:21 “At that time, ²⁴  I will willingly respond,” ²⁵  declares the Lord.

“I will respond to the sky,

and the sky ²⁶  will respond to the ground;

2:22 then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;

and they will respond to ‘God Plants’ (Jezreel)! ²⁷ 

Joel 2:23

2:23 Citizens of Zion, ²⁸  rejoice!

Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! ²⁹ 

For he has given to you the early rains ³⁰  as vindication.

He has sent ³¹  to you the rains –

both the early and the late rains ³²  as formerly.

Zechariah 10:1

The Restoration of the True People

10:1 Ask the Lord for rain in the season of the late spring rains ³³  – the Lord who causes thunderstorms – and he will give everyone showers of rain and green growth in the field.

James 5:17-18

5:17 Elijah was a human being ³⁴  like us, and he prayed earnestly ³⁵  that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months! 5:18 Then ³⁶  he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest.

[18:40]  ¹ tn Or “slaughtered.”

[18:41]  ² tn Heb “for [there is] the sound of the roar of the rain.”

[18:43]  ³ sn So he went on up, looked, and reported, “There is nothing.” Several times in this chapter those addressed by Elijah obey his orders. In vv. 20 and 42 Ahab does as instructed, in vv. 26 and 28 the prophets follow Elijah’s advice, and in vv. 30, 34, 40 and 43 the people and servants do as they are told. By juxtaposing Elijah’s commands with accounts of those commands being obeyed, the narrator emphasizes the authority of the Lord’s prophet.

[18:43]  ⁴ tn Heb “He said, ‘Return,’ seven times.”

[18:44]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:44]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:44]  ⁷ tn Heb “so that the rain won’t restrain you.”

[18:45]  ⁸ tn Heb “rode and went to.”

[37:11]  ⁹ tn The word “moisture” is drawn from רִי (ri) as a contraction for רְוִי (rÿvi). Others emended the text to get “hail” (NAB) or “lightning,” or even “the Creator.” For these, see the various commentaries. There is no reason to change the reading of the MT when it makes perfectly good sense.

[37:12]  ¹⁰ tn The words “the clouds” are supplied from v. 11; the sentence itself actually starts: “and it goes round,” referring to the cloud.

[37:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “that it may do.”

[37:13]  ¹² tn Heb “rod,” i.e., a rod used for punishment.

[37:13]  ¹³ tn This is interpretive; Heb “he makes find it.” The lightning could be what is intended here, for it finds its mark. But R. Gordis (Job, 429) suggests man is the subject – let him find what it is for, i.e., the fate appropriate for him.

[68:9]  ¹⁴ tn The verb נוּף (nuf, “cause rain to fall”) is a homonym of the more common נוּף (“brandish”).

[68:9]  ¹⁵ 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.

[68:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “it [is],” referring to God’s “inheritance.”

[68:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “it,” referring to God’s “inheritance.”

[5:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “say in their hearts.”

[5:24]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “who keeps for us the weeks appointed for harvest.”

[14:22]  ²⁰ tn The word הֶבֶל (hevel), often translated “vanities”, is a common pejorative epithet for idols or false gods. See already in 8:19 and 10:8.

[14:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “Is it not you, O Lord our God?” The words “who does” are supplied in the translation for English style.

[14:22]  ²² tn The rhetorical negatives are balanced by a rhetorical positive.

[34:26]  ²³ tn Heb “showers of blessing.” Abundant rain, which in turn produces fruit and crops (v. 27), is a covenantal blessing for obedience (Lev 26:4).

[2:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “And in that day”; NAB, NRSV “On that day.”

[2:21]  ²⁵ tn The verb עָנָה, (’anah) which is used throughout 2:23-24, is related to the root I עָנָה (’anah), “to answer, listen attentively, react willingly” (BDB 772 s.v. 1.b; HALOT 852 s.v. ענה 3.b).

[2:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and they.” In the Hebrew text the plural pronoun is used because it refers back to the term translated “sky,” which is a dual form in Hebrew. Many English versions (e.g., NAB, NASB, NRSV) use the plural term “heavens” here, which agrees with a plural pronoun (cf. also NIV, NCV “skies”).

[2:22]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Jezreel.” The use of the name יִזְרְעֶאל (yizré’e’l, “Jezreel”) creates a powerful three-fold wordplay: (1) The proper name יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) is a phonetic wordplay on the similar sounding name יִשְׂרָאֵל (yisra’el, “Israel”): God will answer Israel, that is, Jezreel. (2) The name יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) plays on the verb זָרַע (zara’, “to sow, plant”), the immediately following word: וּזְרַעְתִּיהָ (uzéra’tiha, vav + Qal perfect 1st person common singular + 3rd person feminine singular suffix: “I will sow/plant her”). This wordplay creates a popular etymology for יִזְרְעֶאל meaning, “God sows/plants,” which fits well into the agricultural fertility imagery in 2:21-23 [2:23-25]. (3) This positive connotation of יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) in 2:21-23[23-25] reverses the negative connotation of יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) in 1:4-5 (bloodshed of Jehu in the Jezreel Valley).

[2:23]  ²⁸ tn Heb “sons of Zion.”

[2:23]  ²⁹ tn Heb “be glad in the Lord your God.”

[2:23]  ³⁰ 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.

[2:23]  ³¹ tn Heb “caused to come down.”

[2:23]  ³² 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.

[10:1]  ³³ tn Heb “the latter rain.” This expression refers to the last concentration of heavy rainfall in the spring of the year in Palestine, about March or April. Metaphorically and eschatologically (as here) the “latter rain” speaks of God’s outpouring of blessing in the end times (cf. Hos 6:3; Joel 2:21-25).

[5:17]  ³⁴ 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.

[5:17]  ³⁵ tn Grk “he prayed with prayer” (using a Hebrew idiom to show intensity).

[5:18]  ³⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events.