Deuteronomy 28:11-12

28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, ¹  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he ²  promised your ancestors ³  he would give you. 28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; ⁴  you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.

Psalms 65:9-13

65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; ⁵ 

you make it rich and fertile ⁶ 

with overflowing streams full of water. ⁷ 

You provide grain for them, ⁸ 

for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. ⁹ 

65:10 You saturate ¹⁰  its furrows,

and soak ¹¹  its plowed ground. ¹² 

With rain showers you soften its soil, ¹³ 

and make its crops grow. ¹⁴ 

65:11 You crown the year with your good blessings, ¹⁵ 

and you leave abundance in your wake. ¹⁶ 

65:12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture, ¹⁷ 

and the hills are clothed with joy. ¹⁸ 

65:13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,

and the valleys are covered with grain.

They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.

Psalms 104:11-13

104:11 They provide water for all the animals in the field;

the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

104:12 The birds of the sky live beside them;

they chirp among the bushes. ¹⁹ 

104:13 He waters the mountains from the upper rooms of his palace; ²⁰ 

the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow. ²¹ 

Isaiah 55:10-13

55:10 ²² The rain and snow fall from the sky

and do not return,

but instead water the earth

and make it produce and yield crops,

and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.

55:11 In the same way, the promise that I make

does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. ²³ 

No, it is realized as I desire

and is fulfilled as I intend.” ²⁴ 

55:12 Indeed you will go out with joy;

you will be led along in peace;

the mountains and hills will give a joyful shout before you,

and all the trees in the field will clap their hands.

55:13 Evergreens will grow in place of thorn bushes,

firs will grow in place of nettles;

they will be a monument to the Lord, ²⁵ 

a permanent reminder that will remain. ²⁶ 

Joel 2:21-26

2:21 Do not fear, my land!

Rejoice and be glad,

because the Lord has accomplished great things!

2:22 Do not fear, wild animals! ²⁷ 

For the pastures of the wilderness are again green with grass.

Indeed, the trees bear their fruit;

the fig tree and the vine yield to their fullest. ²⁸ 

2:23 Citizens of Zion, ²⁹  rejoice!

Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! ³⁰ 

For he has given to you the early rains ³¹  as vindication.

He has sent ³²  to you the rains –

both the early and the late rains ³³  as formerly.

2:24 The threshing floors are full of grain;

the vats overflow with fresh wine and olive oil.

2:25 I will make up for the years ³⁴ 

that the ‘arbeh-locust ³⁵  consumed your crops ³⁶  –

the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust –

my great army ³⁷  that I sent against you.

2:26 You will have plenty to eat,

and your hunger will be fully satisfied; ³⁸ 

you will praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has acted wondrously in your behalf.

My people will never again be put to shame.

James 5:7

Patience in Suffering

5:7 So be patient, brothers and sisters, ³⁹  until the Lord’s return. ⁴⁰  Think of how the farmer waits ⁴¹  for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient ⁴²  for it until it receives the early and late rains.

[28:11]  ¹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

[28:11]  ² tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:11]  ³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

[28:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

[65:9]  ⁵ 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.”

[65:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”

[65:9]  ⁷ 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).

[65:9]  ⁸ tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.

[65:9]  ⁹ 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.

[65:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].

[65:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”

[65:10]  ¹² tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”

[65:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.

[65:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.

[65:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural blessings.

[65:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and your paths drip with abundance.”

[65:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “drip.”

[65:12]  ¹⁸ tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who see it.

[104:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “among the thick foliage they give a sound.”

[104:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “from his upper rooms.”

[104:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “from the fruit of your works the earth is full.” The translation assumes that “fruit” is literal here. If “fruit” is understood more abstractly as “product; result,” then one could translate, “the earth flourishes as a result of your deeds” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB).

[55:10]  ²² tn This verse begins in the Hebrew text with כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר (ki ka’asher, “for, just as”), which is completed by כֵּן (ken, “so, in the same way”) at the beginning of v. 11. For stylistic reasons, this lengthy sentence is divided up into separate sentences in the translation.

[55:11]  ²³ tn Heb “so is the word which goes out from my mouth, it does not return to empty.” “Word” refers here to divine promises, like the ones made just prior to and after this (see vv. 7b, 12-13).

[55:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “but it accomplishes what I desire, and succeeds [on the mission] which I send it.”

[55:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to the Lord for a name.” For שֵׁם (shem) used in the sense of “monument,” see also 56:5, where it stands parallel to יָד (yad).

[55:13]  ²⁶ tn Or, more literally, “a permanent sign that will not be cut off.”

[2:22]  ²⁷ tn Heb “beasts of the field.”

[2:22]  ²⁸ tn Heb “their strength.” The trees and vines will produce a maximum harvest, in contrast to the failed agricultural conditions previously described.

[2:23]  ²⁹ tn Heb “sons of Zion.”

[2:23]  ³⁰ tn Heb “be glad in the Lord your God.”

[2:23]  ³¹ 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]  ³² tn Heb “caused to come down.”

[2:23]  ³³ 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.

[2:25]  ³⁴ tn Heb “I will restore to you the years.”

[2:25]  ³⁵ sn The same four terms for locust are used here as in 1:4, but in a different order. This fact creates some difficulty for the notion that the four words refer to four distinct stages of locust development.

[2:25]  ³⁶ tn The term “your crops” does not appear in the Hebrew, but has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[2:25]  ³⁷ sn Here Joel employs military language to describe the locusts. In the prophet’s thinking this invasion was far from being a freak accident. Rather, the Lord is pictured here as a divine warrior who leads his army into the land as a punishment for past sin and as a means of bringing about spiritual renewal on the part of the people.

[2:26]  ³⁸ tn Heb “you will surely eat and be satisfied.”

[5:7]  ³⁹ tn Grk “brothers”; this phrase occurs again three times in the paragraph. See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[5:7]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “advent”; or “coming” (also in v. 8).

[5:7]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “Behold! The farmer waits.”

[5:7]  ⁴² tn Grk “being patient.”