Psalms 65:9-10

65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; ¹ 

you make it rich and fertile ² 

with overflowing streams full of water. ³ 

You provide grain for them, ⁴ 

for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. ⁵ 

65:10 You saturate ⁶  its furrows,

and soak ⁷  its plowed ground. ⁸ 

With rain showers you soften its soil, ⁹ 

and make its crops grow. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 104:24

104:24 How many living things you have made, O Lord! ¹¹ 

You have exhibited great skill in making all of them; ¹² 

the earth is full of the living things you have made.

Jeremiah 14:22

14:22 Do any of the worthless idols ¹³  of the nations cause rain to fall?

Do the skies themselves send showers?

Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? ¹⁴ 

So we put our hopes in you ¹⁵ 

because you alone do all this.”

Joel 2:23

2:23 Citizens of Zion, ¹⁶  rejoice!

Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! ¹⁷ 

For he has given to you the early rains ¹⁸  as vindication.

He has sent ¹⁹  to you the rains –

both the early and the late rains ²⁰  as formerly.

Amos 4:7

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. ²¹ 

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field ²²  would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

[65:9]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”

[65:9]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.

[65:9]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].

[65:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”

[65:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”

[65:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.

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

[104:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “How many [are] your works, O Lord.” In this case the Lord’s “works” are the creatures he has made, as the preceding and following contexts make clear.

[104:24]  ¹² tn Heb “all of them with wisdom you have made.”

[14:22]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Is it not you, O Lord our God?” The words “who does” are supplied in the translation for English style.

[14:22]  ¹⁵ tn The rhetorical negatives are balanced by a rhetorical positive.

[2:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “sons of Zion.”

[2:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “be glad in the Lord your God.”

[2:23]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “caused to come down.”

[2:23]  ²⁰ 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.

[4:7]  ²¹ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

[4:7]  ²² tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.