Genesis 27:28

27:28 May God give you

the dew of the sky ¹ 

and the richness ²  of the earth,

and plenty of grain and new wine.

Genesis 27:37-39

27:37 Isaac replied to Esau, “Look! I have made him lord over you. I have made all his relatives his servants and provided him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?” 27:38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only that one blessing, my father? Bless me too!” ³  Then Esau wept loudly. ⁴ 

27:39 So his father Isaac said to him,

“Indeed, ⁵  your home will be

away from the richness ⁶  of the earth,

and away from the dew of the sky above.

Deuteronomy 33:28

33:28 Israel lives in safety,

the fountain of Jacob is quite secure, ⁷ 

in a land of grain and new wine;

indeed, its heavens ⁸  rain down dew. ⁹ 

Job 36:27-28

36:27 He draws up drops of water;

they distill ¹⁰  the rain into its mist, ¹¹ 

36:28 which the clouds pour down

and shower on humankind abundantly.

Job 38:26-28

38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, ¹² 

a desert where there are no human beings, ¹³ 

38:27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land,

and to cause it to sprout with vegetation? ¹⁴ 

38:28 Does the rain have a father,

or who has fathered the drops of the dew?

Psalms 65:9-12

65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; ¹⁵ 

you make it rich and fertile ¹⁶ 

with overflowing streams full of water. ¹⁷ 

You provide grain for them, ¹⁸ 

for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. ¹⁹ 

65:10 You saturate ²⁰  its furrows,

and soak ²¹  its plowed ground. ²² 

With rain showers you soften its soil, ²³ 

and make its crops grow. ²⁴ 

65:11 You crown the year with your good blessings, ²⁵ 

and you leave abundance in your wake. ²⁶ 

65:12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture, ²⁷ 

and the hills are clothed with joy. ²⁸ 

Jeremiah 14:22

14:22 Do any of the worthless idols ²⁹  of the nations cause rain to fall?

Do the skies themselves send showers?

Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? ³⁰ 

So we put our hopes in you ³¹ 

because you alone do all this.”

Joel 2:23

2:23 Citizens of Zion, ³²  rejoice!

Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! ³³ 

For he has given to you the early rains ³⁴  as vindication.

He has sent ³⁵  to you the rains –

both the early and the late rains ³⁶  as formerly.

[27:28]  ¹ tn Heb “and from the dew of the sky.”

[27:28]  ² tn Heb “and from the fatness.”

[27:38]  ³ tn Heb “Bless me, me also, my father.” The words “my father” have not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[27:38]  ⁴ tn Heb “and Esau lifted his voice and wept.”

[27:39]  ⁵ tn Heb “look.”

[27:39]  ⁶ tn Heb “from the fatness.”

[33:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “all alone.” The idea is that such vital resources as water will some day no longer need protection because God will provide security.

[33:28]  ⁸ tn Or “skies.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[33:28]  ⁹ tn Or perhaps “drizzle, showers.” See note at Deut 32:2.

[36:27]  ¹⁰ tn The verb means “to filter; to refine,” and so a plural subject with the drops of water as the subject will not work. So many read the singular, “he distills.”

[36:27]  ¹¹ tn This word עֵד (’ed) occurs also in Gen 2:6. The suggestion has been that instead of a mist it represents an underground watercourse that wells up to water the ground.

[38:26]  ¹² tn Heb “on a land, no man.”

[38:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “a desert, no man in it.”

[38:27]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”

[65:9]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.

[65:9]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].

[65:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”

[65:10]  ²² tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”

[65:10]  ²³ tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.

[65:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.

[65:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural blessings.

[65:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and your paths drip with abundance.”

[65:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “drip.”

[65:12]  ²⁸ tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who see it.

[14:22]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Is it not you, O Lord our God?” The words “who does” are supplied in the translation for English style.

[14:22]  ³¹ tn The rhetorical negatives are balanced by a rhetorical positive.

[2:23]  ³² tn Heb “sons of Zion.”

[2:23]  ³³ tn Heb “be glad in the Lord your God.”

[2:23]  ³⁴ 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]  ³⁵ tn Heb “caused to come down.”

[2:23]  ³⁶ 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.