Genesis 45:6

45:6 For these past two years there has been famine in ¹  the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

Exodus 34:21

34:21 “On six days ²  you may labor, but on the seventh day you must rest; ³  even at the time of plowing and of harvest ⁴  you are to rest. ⁵ 

Psalms 74:16-17

74:16 You established the cycle of day and night; ⁶ 

you put the moon ⁷  and sun in place. ⁸ 

74:17 You set up all the boundaries ⁹  of the earth;

you created the cycle of summer and winter. ¹⁰ 

The Song of Songs 2:11-12

2:11 Look! The winter has passed,

the winter rains are over and gone.

2:12 The pomegranates have appeared ¹¹  in the land,

the time for pruning and singing ¹²  has come;

the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

Isaiah 54:9

54:9 “As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time, ¹³ 

when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood ¹⁴  would never again cover the earth.

In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you.

Jeremiah 5:24

5:24 They do not say to themselves, ¹⁵ 

“Let us revere the Lord our God.

It is he who gives us the autumn rains and the spring rains at the proper time.

It is he who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.” ¹⁶ 

James 5:7

Patience in Suffering

5:7 So be patient, brothers and sisters, ¹⁷  until the Lord’s return. ¹⁸  Think of how the farmer waits ¹⁹  for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient ²⁰  for it until it receives the early and late rains.

[45:6]  ¹ tn Heb “the famine [has been] in the midst of.”

[34:21]  ² tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

[34:21]  ³ tn Or “cease” (i.e., from the labors).

[34:21]  ⁴ sn See M. Dahood, “Vocative lamed in Exodus 2,4 and Merismus in 34,21,” Bib 62 (1981): 413-15.

[34:21]  ⁵ tn The imperfect tense expresses injunction or instruction.

[74:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “To you [is] day, also to you [is] night.”

[74:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “[the] light.” Following the reference to “day and night” and in combination with “sun,” it is likely that the Hebrew term מָאוֹר (ma’or, “light”) refers here to the moon.

[74:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “you established [the] light and [the] sun.”

[74:17]  ⁹ tn This would appear to refer to geographical boundaries, such as mountains, rivers, and seacoasts. However, since the day-night cycle has just been mentioned (v. 16) and the next line speaks of the seasons, it is possible that “boundaries” here refers to the divisions of the seasons. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 2:156.

[74:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “summer and winter, you, you formed them.”

[2:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “are seen.”

[2:12]  ¹² tn Alternately, “the time of singing” or “the time of pruning.” The homonymic root זָמִיר (zamir) means “song, singing” (HALOT 273 s.v. I זָמִיר; DCH 3:117 s.v. זָמִיר a), while זָמִיר II means “pruning, trimming” (HALOT 273 s.v. II; DCH 3:117 s.v. II). The intended root is debated among the ancient versions (LXX, Aquila, Symmachus, Vulgate, Targum), Hebrew lexicographers (HALOT 273; DCH 3:117), and translations: “singing” (KJV, NIV, NASB margin, NJPS margin), “pruning” (NASB, NJPS). However, rather than choosing between these two roots, it is likely that this is an example of intentional ambiguity. The preceding line draws out the meaning of זָמִיר (“trimming, pruning”): “The pomegranates are seen in the land, the time of pruning has come.” The following line draws out the meaning of זָמִיר (“singing”): “The time of singing has come, the voice of the turtledove is heard in the land.” This homonymic wordplay creates an example of “janus parallelism” between the three poetic lines which play off both root meanings of the intentionally ambiguous homonym. This elegant wordplay and the AB:BA “janus parallelism” may be represented thus: “The pomegranates are seen in the land, the time has come for pruning // singing, the voice of the turtledove is heard in the land.”

[54:9]  ¹³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “For [or “indeed”] the waters of Noah [is] this to me.” כִּי־מֵי (ki-me, “for the waters of”) should be emended to כְּמֵי (kÿmey, “like the days of”), which is supported by the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a and all the ancient versions except LXX.

[54:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the waters of Noah” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[5:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “say in their hearts.”

[5:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “who keeps for us the weeks appointed for harvest.”

[5:7]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Or “advent”; or “coming” (also in v. 8).

[5:7]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “Behold! The farmer waits.”

[5:7]  ²⁰ tn Grk “being patient.”