Deuteronomy 28:12

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; ¹  you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.

Deuteronomy 28:1

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed ²  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ³  you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.

Deuteronomy 17:1

17:1 You must not sacrifice to him ⁴  a bull or sheep that has a blemish or any other defect, because that is considered offensive ⁵  to the Lord your God.

Job 5:10

5:10 he gives ⁶  rain on the earth, ⁷ 

and sends ⁸  water on the fields; ⁹ 

Job 37:11-13

37:11 He loads the clouds with moisture; ¹⁰ 

he scatters his lightning through the clouds.

37:12 The clouds ¹¹  go round in circles,

wheeling about according to his plans,

to carry out ¹²  all that he commands them

over the face of the whole inhabited world.

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

or whether it is for mercy,

he causes it to find its mark. ¹⁴ 

Job 38:25-28

38:25 Who carves out a channel for the heavy rains,

and a path for the rumble of thunder,

38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, ¹⁵ 

a desert where there are no human beings, ¹⁶ 

38:27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land,

and to cause it to sprout with vegetation? ¹⁷ 

38:28 Does the rain have a father,

or who has fathered the drops of the dew?

Psalms 65:9-13

65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; ¹⁸ 

you make it rich and fertile ¹⁹ 

with overflowing streams full of water. ²⁰ 

You provide grain for them, ²¹ 

for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. ²² 

65:10 You saturate ²³  its furrows,

and soak ²⁴  its plowed ground. ²⁵ 

With rain showers you soften its soil, ²⁶ 

and make its crops grow. ²⁷ 

65:11 You crown the year with your good blessings, ²⁸ 

and you leave abundance in your wake. ²⁹ 

65:12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture, ³⁰ 

and the hills are clothed with joy. ³¹ 

65:13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,

and the valleys are covered with grain.

They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.

Psalms 68:9

68:9 O God, you cause abundant showers to fall ³²  on your chosen people. ³³ 

When they ³⁴  are tired, you sustain them, ³⁵ 

Psalms 104:13

104:13 He waters the mountains from the upper rooms of his palace; ³⁶ 

the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow. ³⁷ 

Isaiah 5:6

5:6 I will make it a wasteland;

no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, ³⁸ 

and thorns and briers will grow there.

I will order the clouds

not to drop any rain on it.

Isaiah 30:23

30:23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground,

and the ground will produce crops in abundance. ³⁹ 

At that time ⁴⁰  your cattle will graze in wide pastures.

Jeremiah 14:22

14:22 Do any of the worthless idols ⁴¹  of the nations cause rain to fall?

Do the skies themselves send showers?

Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? ⁴² 

So we put our hopes in you ⁴³ 

because you alone do all this.”

Ezekiel 34:26-27

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. ⁴⁴  34:27 The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the earth will yield its crops. They will live securely on their land; they will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them.

Joel 2:23-24

2:23 Citizens of Zion, ⁴⁵  rejoice!

Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! ⁴⁶ 

For he has given to you the early rains ⁴⁷  as vindication.

He has sent ⁴⁸  to you the rains –

both the early and the late rains ⁴⁹  as formerly.

2:24 The threshing floors are full of grain;

the vats overflow with fresh wine and olive oil.

Amos 4:7-8

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. ⁵⁰ 

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field ⁵¹  would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

4:8 People from ⁵²  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ⁵³  water,

but remained thirsty. ⁵⁴ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Matthew 5:45

5:45 so that you may be like ⁵⁵  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Acts 14:17

14:17 yet he did not leave himself without a witness by doing good, ⁵⁶  by giving you rain from heaven ⁵⁷  and fruitful seasons, satisfying you ⁵⁸  with food and your hearts with joy.” ⁵⁹ 

James 5:7

Patience in Suffering

5:7 So be patient, brothers and sisters, ⁶⁰  until the Lord’s return. ⁶¹  Think of how the farmer waits ⁶²  for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient ⁶³  for it until it receives the early and late rains.

James 5:17-18

5:17 Elijah was a human being ⁶⁴  like us, and he prayed earnestly ⁶⁵  that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months! 5:18 Then ⁶⁶  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 ⁶⁷  to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time ⁶⁸  they are prophesying. They ⁶⁹  have power ⁷⁰  to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want.

[28:12]  ¹ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

[28:1]  ² tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

[28:1]  ³ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

[17:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “to the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[17:1]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “an abomination”; cf. NAB) describes persons, things, or practices offensive to ritual or moral order. See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:314-18; see also the note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.

[5:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “who gives.” The participle continues the doxology here. But the article is necessary because of the distance between this verse and the reference to God.

[5:10]  ⁷ tn In both halves of the verse the literal rendering would be “upon the face of the earth” and “upon the face of the fields.”

[5:10]  ⁸ tn The second participle is simply coordinated to the first and therefore does not need the definite article repeated (see GKC 404 §126.b).

[5:10]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term חוּצוֹת (khutsot) basically means “outside,” or what is outside. It could refer to streets if what is meant is outside the house; but it refers to fields here (parallel to the more general word) because it is outside the village. See Ps 144:13 for the use of the expression for “countryside.” The LXX gives a much wider interpretation: “what is under heaven.”

[37:11]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “that it may do.”

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

[37:13]  ¹⁴ 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.

[38:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “on a land, no man.”

[38:26]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a desert, no man in it.”

[38:27]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to cause to sprout a source of vegetation.” The word מֹצָא (motsa’) is rendered “mine” in Job 28:1. The suggestion with the least changes is Wright’s: צָמֵא (tsame’, “thirsty”). But others choose מִצִּיָּה (mitsiyyah, “from the steppe”).

[65:9]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”

[65:9]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.

[65:9]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].

[65:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”

[65:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”

[65:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.

[65:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.

[65:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural blessings.

[65:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and your paths drip with abundance.”

[65:12]  ³⁰ tn Heb “drip.”

[65:12]  ³¹ tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who see it.

[68:9]  ³² tn The verb נוּף (nuf, “cause rain to fall”) is a homonym of the more common נוּף (“brandish”).

[68:9]  ³³ 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]  ³⁴ tn Heb “it [is],” referring to God’s “inheritance.”

[68:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “it,” referring to God’s “inheritance.”

[104:13]  ³⁶ tn Heb “from his upper rooms.”

[104:13]  ³⁷ 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).

[5:6]  ³⁸ tn Heb “it will not be pruned or hoed” (so NASB); ASV and NRSV both similar.

[30:23]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and he will give rain for your seed which you plant in the ground, and food [will be] the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and abundant.”

[30:23]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[14:22]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² tn Heb “Is it not you, O Lord our God?” The words “who does” are supplied in the translation for English style.

[14:22]  ⁴³ tn The rhetorical negatives are balanced by a rhetorical positive.

[34:26]  ⁴⁴ 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).

[2:23]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “sons of Zion.”

[2:23]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “be glad in the Lord your God.”

[2:23]  ⁴⁷ 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]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “caused to come down.”

[2:23]  ⁴⁹ 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.

[4:7]  ⁵⁰ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

[4:7]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.

[4:8]  ⁵² tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:8]  ⁵³ tn Heb “to drink.”

[4:8]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “were not satisfied.”

[5:45]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “be sons of your Father in heaven.” Here, however, the focus is not on attaining a relationship (becoming a child of God) but rather on being the kind of person who shares the characteristics of God himself (a frequent meaning of the Semitic idiom “son of”). See L&N 58.26.

[14:17]  ⁵⁶ tn The participle ἀγαθουργῶν (agaqourgwn) is regarded as indicating means here, parallel to the following participles διδούς (didou") and ἐμπιπλῶν (empiplwn). This is the easiest way to understand the Greek structure. Semantically, the first participle is a general statement, followed by two participles giving specific examples of doing good.

[14:17]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “from the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[14:17]  ⁵⁸ tn Grk “satisfying [filling] your hearts with food and joy.” This is an idiomatic expression; it strikes the English reader as strange to speak of “filling one’s heart with food.” Thus the additional direct object “you” has been supplied, separating the two expressions somewhat: “satisfying you with food and your hearts with joy.”

[14:17]  ⁵⁹ sn God’s general sovereignty and gracious care in the creation are the way Paul introduces the theme of the goodness of God. He was trying to establish monotheism here. It is an OT theme (Gen 8:22; Ps 4:7; 145:15-16; 147:8-9; Isa 25:6; Jer 5:24) which also appears in the NT (Luke 12:22-34).

[5:7]  ⁶⁰ 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]  ⁶¹ tn Or “advent”; or “coming” (also in v. 8).

[5:7]  ⁶² tn Grk “Behold! The farmer waits.”

[5:7]  ⁶³ tn Grk “being patient.”

[5:17]  ⁶⁴ 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]  ⁶⁵ tn Grk “he prayed with prayer” (using a Hebrew idiom to show intensity).

[5:18]  ⁶⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events.

[11:6]  ⁶⁷ tn Or “authority.”

[11:6]  ⁶⁸ tn Grk “the days.”

[11:6]  ⁶⁹ 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.

[11:6]  ⁷⁰ tn Or “authority.”