Genesis 26:12

26:12 When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown, ¹  because the Lord blessed him. ² 

Leviticus 26:4-5

26:4 I will give you your rains in their time so that ³  the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. ⁴  26:5 Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes, ⁵  and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so ⁶  you will eat your bread until you are satisfied, ⁷  and you will live securely in your land.

Deuteronomy 28:4-12

28:4 Your children ⁸  will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. ⁹  28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack ¹⁰  you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction ¹¹  but flee from you in seven different directions. 28:8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do – yes, he will bless you in the land he ¹²  is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments ¹³  and obey him. ¹⁴  28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, ¹⁵  and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, ¹⁶  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he ¹⁷  promised your ancestors ¹⁸  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; ¹⁹  you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.

Psalms 67:6-7

67:6 The earth yields its crops.

May God, our God, bless us!

67:7 May God bless us! ²⁰ 

Then all the ends of the earth will give him the honor he deserves. ²¹ 

Proverbs 3:9-10

3:9 Honor ²²  the Lord from your wealth

and from the first fruits of all your crops; ²³ 

3:10 then your barns will be filled completely, ²⁴ 

and your vats ²⁵  will overflow ²⁶  with new wine.

Isaiah 30:23

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

and the ground will produce crops in abundance. ²⁷ 

At that time ²⁸  your cattle will graze in wide pastures.

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. ²⁹  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.

Ezekiel 36:30

36:30 I will multiply the fruit of the trees and the produce of the fields, so that you will never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.

Hosea 2:21-23

Agricultural Fertility Restored to the Repentant Nation

2:21 “At that time, ³⁰  I will willingly respond,” ³¹  declares the Lord.

“I will respond to the sky,

and the sky ³²  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)! ³³ 

2:23 Then I will plant her as my own ³⁴  in the land.

I will have pity on ‘No Pity’ (Lo-Ruhamah).

I will say to ‘Not My People’ (Lo-Ammi), ‘You are my people!’

And he ³⁵  will say, ‘You are ³⁶  my God!’”

Joel 2:22

2:22 Do not fear, wild animals! ³⁷ 

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. ³⁸ 

Amos 9:13-15

9:13 “Be sure of this, ³⁹  the time is ⁴⁰  coming,” says the Lord,

“when the plowman will catch up to the reaper ⁴¹ 

and the one who stomps the grapes ⁴²  will overtake ⁴³  the planter. ⁴⁴ 

Juice will run down the slopes, ⁴⁵ 

it will flow down all the hillsides. ⁴⁶ 

9:14 I will bring back my people, Israel; ⁴⁷ 

they will rebuild the cities lying in rubble ⁴⁸  and settle down. ⁴⁹ 

They will plant vineyards and drink the wine they produce; ⁵⁰ 

they will grow orchards ⁵¹  and eat the fruit they produce. ⁵² 

9:15 I will plant them on their land

and they will never again be uprooted from the ⁵³  land I have given them,”

says the Lord your God.

Haggai 2:19

2:19 The seed is still in the storehouse, isn’t it? And the vine, fig tree, pomegranate, and olive tree have not produced. Nevertheless, from today on I will bless you.’”

[26:12]  ¹ tn Heb “a hundredfold.”

[26:12]  ² tn This final clause explains why Isaac had such a bountiful harvest.

[26:4]  ³ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural.

[26:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “will reach for you the vintage season.”

[26:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV, NASB “to the full.”

[28:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:6]  ⁹ sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.

[28:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).

[28:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).

[28:8]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord your God.” Because English would not typically reintroduce the proper name following a relative pronoun (“he will bless…the Lord your God is giving”), the pronoun (“he”) has been employed here in the translation.

[28:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

[28:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).

[28:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

[28:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

[28:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

[67:7]  ²⁰ tn The prefixed verb forms in vv. 6b-7a are understood as jussives.

[67:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “will fear him.” After the jussive of the preceding line, the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive is understood as indicating purpose/result. (Note how v. 3 anticipates the universal impact of God showing his people blessing.) Another option is to take the verb as a jussive and translate, “Let all the ends of the earth fear him.”

[3:9]  ²² tn The imperative כַּבֵּד (kabbed, “honor”) functions as a command, instruction, counsel or exhortation. To honor God means to give him the rightful place of authority by rendering to him gifts of tribute. One way to acknowledge God in one’s ways (v. 6) is to honor him with one’s wealth (v. 9).

[3:9]  ²³ tn Heb “produce.” The noun תְּבוּאָה (tÿvu’ah) has a two-fold range of meaning: (1) “product; yield” of the earth (= crops; harvest) and (2) “income; revenue” in general (BDB 100 s.v.). The imagery in vv. 9-10 is agricultural; however, all Israelites – not just farmers – were expected to give the best portion (= first fruits) of their income to Lord.

[3:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “with plenty” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “to overflowing.” The noun שָׂבָע (sava’, “plenty; satiety”) functions as an adverbial accusative of manner or contents: “completely.”

[3:10]  ²⁵ sn This pictures the process of pressing grapes in which the upper receptacle is filled with grapes and the lower one catches the juice. The harvest of grapes will be so plentiful that the lower vat will overflow with grape juice. The pictures in v. 10 are metonymies of effect for cause (= the great harvest that God will provide when they honor him).

[3:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “burst open.” The verb פָּרַץ (parats, “to burst open”) functions as hyperbole here to emphasize the fullness of the wine vats (BDB 829 s.v. 9).

[30:23]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[34:26]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tn Heb “And in that day”; NAB, NRSV “On that day.”

[2:21]  ³¹ 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]  ³² 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]  ³³ 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]  ³⁴ tn Heb “for myself.”

[2:23]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew text, carrying out the reference to the son born in 1:8-9, uses the third person masculine singular pronoun here; some English translations use third person plural (“they,” so KJV, NASB, NIV, CEV) in keeping with the immediate context, which refers to reestablished Israel.

[2:23]  ³⁶ tn The words “You are” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are implied. It is necessary to supply the phrase in the translation to prevent the reader from understanding the predicate “my God” as an exclamation (cf. NAB).

[2:22]  ³⁷ tn Heb “beasts of the field.”

[2:22]  ³⁸ tn Heb “their strength.” The trees and vines will produce a maximum harvest, in contrast to the failed agricultural conditions previously described.

[9:13]  ³⁹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[9:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “the days are.”

[9:13]  ⁴¹ sn The plowman will catch up to the reaper. Plowing occurred in October-November, and harvesting in April-May (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109.) But in the future age of restored divine blessing, there will be so many crops the reapers will take all summer to harvest them, and it will be time for plowing again before the harvest is finished.

[9:13]  ⁴² sn When the grapes had been harvested, they were placed in a press where workers would stomp on them with their feet and squeeze out the juice. For a discussion of grape harvesting technique, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 110-12.

[9:13]  ⁴³ tn The verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation from the parallel line.

[9:13]  ⁴⁴ sn The grape harvest occurred in August-September, planting in November-December (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109). But in the future age described here there will be so many grapes the workers who stomp them will still be working when the next planting season arrives.

[9:13]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “hills,” where the vineyards were planted.

[9:13]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “and all the hills will melt.”

[9:14]  ⁴⁷ tn This line can also be translated “I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel” and is a common idiom (e.g., Deut 30:3; Jer 30:3; Hos 6:11; Zeph 3:20). This rendering is followed by several modern English versions (e.g., NEB, NRSV, NJPS).

[9:14]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “the ruined [or “desolate”] cities.”

[9:14]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “and live [in them].”

[9:14]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “drink their wine.”

[9:14]  ⁵¹ tn Or “gardens.”

[9:14]  ⁵² tn Heb “eat their fruit.”

[9:15]  ⁵³ tn Heb “their.” The pronoun was replaced by the English definite article in the translation for stylistic reasons.