Job 38:26-27

38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, ¹ 

a desert where there are no human beings, ² 

38:27 to satisfy a devastated and desolate land,

and to cause it to sprout with vegetation? ³ 

Psalms 65:9-13

65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; ⁴ 

you make it rich and fertile ⁵ 

with overflowing streams full of water. ⁶ 

You provide grain for them, ⁷ 

for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. ⁸ 

65:10 You saturate ⁹  its furrows,

and soak ¹⁰  its plowed ground. ¹¹ 

With rain showers you soften its soil, ¹² 

and make its crops grow. ¹³ 

65:11 You crown the year with your good blessings, ¹⁴ 

and you leave abundance in your wake. ¹⁵ 

65:12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture, ¹⁶ 

and the hills are clothed with joy. ¹⁷ 

65:13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,

and the valleys are covered with grain.

They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.

Psalms 104:13-15

104:13 He waters the mountains from the upper rooms of his palace; ¹⁸ 

the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow. ¹⁹ 

104:14 He provides grass ²⁰  for the cattle,

and crops for people to cultivate, ²¹ 

so they can produce food from the ground, ²² 

104:15 as well as wine that makes people feel so good, ²³ 

and so they can have oil to make their faces shine, ²⁴ 

as well as food that sustains people’s lives. ²⁵ 

Psalms 104:27-28

104:27 All of your creatures ²⁶  wait for you

to provide them with food on a regular basis. ²⁷ 

104:28 You give food to them and they receive it;

you open your hand and they are filled with food. ²⁸ 

Psalms 136:25

136:25 to the one who gives food to all living things, ²⁹ 

for his loyal love endures.

Acts 14:17

14:17 yet he did not leave himself without a witness by doing good, ³⁰  by giving you rain from heaven ³¹  and fruitful seasons, satisfying you ³²  with food and your hearts with joy.” ³³ 

[38:26]  ¹ tn Heb “on a land, no man.”

[38:26]  ² tn Heb “a desert, no man in it.”

[38:27]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”

[65:9]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.

[65:9]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].

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

[65:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”

[65:10]  ¹² tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.

[65:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.

[65:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural blessings.

[65:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and your paths drip with abundance.”

[65:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “drip.”

[65:12]  ¹⁷ tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who see it.

[104:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “from his upper rooms.”

[104:13]  ¹⁹ 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).

[104:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “causes the grass to sprout up.”

[104:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “for the service of man” (see Gen 2:5).

[104:14]  ²² tn Heb “to cause food to come out from the earth.”

[104:15]  ²³ tn Heb “and wine [that] makes the heart of man happy.”

[104:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “to make [the] face shine from oil.” The Hebrew verb צָהַל (tsahal, “to shine”) occurs only here in the OT. It appears to be an alternate form of צָהַר (tsahar), a derivative from צָהָרִים (tsaharim, “noon”).

[104:15]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and food [that] sustains the heart of man.”

[104:27]  ²⁶ tn Heb “All of them.” The pronoun “them” refers not just to the sea creatures mentioned in vv. 25-26, but to all living things (see v. 24). This has been specified in the translation as “all of your creatures” for clarity.

[104:27]  ²⁷ tn Heb “to give their food in its time.”

[104:28]  ²⁸ tn Heb “they are satisfied [with] good.”

[136:25]  ²⁹ tn Heb “to all flesh,” which can refer to all people (see Pss 65:2; 145:21) or more broadly to mankind and animals. Elsewhere the psalms view God as the provider for all living things (see Pss 104:27-28; 145:15).

[14:17]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn Or “from the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[14:17]  ³² 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]  ³³ 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).