Deuteronomy 8:7-9

8:7 For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of brooks, ¹  springs, and fountains flowing forth in valleys and hills, 8:8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, of olive trees and honey, 8:9 a land where you may eat food ²  in plenty and find no lack of anything, a land whose stones are iron ³  and from whose hills you can mine copper.

Genesis 27:28

27:28 May God give you

the dew of the sky ⁴ 

and the richness ⁵  of the earth,

and plenty of grain and new wine.

Psalms 65:12-13

65:12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture, ⁶ 

and the hills are clothed with joy. ⁷ 

65:13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,

and the valleys are covered with grain.

They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.

Psalms 104:10-13

104:10 He turns springs into streams; ⁸ 

they flow between the mountains.

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. ⁹ 

104:13 He waters the mountains from the upper rooms of his palace; ¹⁰ 

the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 28:1

The Lord Will Judge Samaria

28:1 The splendid crown of Ephraim’s drunkards is doomed, ¹² 

the withering flower, its beautiful splendor, ¹³ 

situated ¹⁴  at the head of a rich valley,

the crown of those overcome with wine. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 2:7

2:7 I brought you ¹⁶  into a fertile land

so you could enjoy ¹⁷  its fruits and its rich bounty.

But when you entered my land, you defiled it; ¹⁸ 

you made the land I call my own ¹⁹  loathsome to me.

Hebrews 6:7

6:7 For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on ²⁰  it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God.

[8:7]  ¹ tn Or “wadis.”

[8:9]  ² tn The Hebrew term may refer to “food” in a more general sense (cf. NASB, NCV, NLT) or “bread” in particular (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[8:9]  ³ sn A land whose stones are iron. Since iron deposits are few and far between in Palestine, the reference here is probably to iron ore found in mines as opposed to the meteorite iron more commonly known in that area.

[27:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “and from the dew of the sky.”

[27:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “and from the fatness.”

[65:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “drip.”

[65:12]  ⁷ tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who see it.

[104:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “[the] one who sends springs into streams.” Another option is to translate, “he sends streams [i.e., streams that originate from springs] into the valleys” (cf. NIV).

[104:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “among the thick foliage they give a sound.”

[104:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from his upper rooms.”

[104:13]  ¹¹ 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).

[28:1]  ¹² tn Heb “Woe [to] the crown [or “wreath”] of the splendor [or “pride”] of the drunkards of Ephraim.” The “crown” is Samaria, the capital city of the northern kingdom (Ephraim). Priests and prophets are included among these drunkards in v. 7.

[28:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “the beauty of his splendor.” In the translation the masculine pronoun (“his”) has been replaced by “its” because the referent (the “crown”) is the city of Samaria.

[28:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “which [is].”

[28:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “ones overcome with wine.” The words “the crown of” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The syntactical relationship of the final phrase to what precedes is uncertain. הֲלוּמֵי יָיִן (halume yayin, “ones overcome with wine”) seems to correspond to שִׁכֹּרֵי אֶפְרַיִם (shikkore ’efrayim, “drunkards of Ephraim”) in line 1. The translation assumes that the phrase “the splendid crown” is to be understood in the final line as well.

[2:7]  ¹⁶ sn Note how contemporary Israel is again identified with her early ancestors. See the study note on 2:2.

[2:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “eat.”

[2:7]  ¹⁸ sn I.e., made it ceremonially unclean. See Lev 18:19-30; Num 35:34; Deut 21:23.

[2:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “my inheritance.” Or “the land [i.e., inheritance] I gave you,” reading the pronoun as indicating source rather than possession. The parallelism and the common use in Jeremiah of the term to refer to the land or people as the Lord’s (e.g., 12:7, 8, 9; 16:18; 50:11) make the possessive use more likely here.

[6:7]  ²⁰ tn Grk “comes upon.”