Psalms 104:13-14

104:13 He waters the mountains from the upper rooms of his palace; ¹ 

the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow. ² 

104:14 He provides grass ³  for the cattle,

and crops for people to cultivate, ⁴ 

so they can produce food from the ground, ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 11:11-12

11:11 Instead, the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy ⁶  is one of hills and valleys, a land that drinks in water from the rains, ⁷  11:12 a land the Lord your God looks after. ⁸  He is constantly attentive to it ⁹  from the beginning to the end of the year. ¹⁰ 

Ruth 1:6

1:6 So she decided to return home from the region of Moab, accompanied by her daughters-in-law, ¹¹  because while she was living in Moab ¹²  she had heard that the Lord had shown concern ¹³  for his people, reversing the famine by providing abundant crops. ¹⁴ 

Job 37:6-13

37:6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall ¹⁵  to earth,’

and to the torrential rains, ¹⁶  ‘Pour down.’ ¹⁷ 

37:7 He causes everyone to stop working, ¹⁸ 

so that all people ¹⁹  may know ²⁰  his work.

37:8 The wild animals go to their lairs,

and in their dens they remain.

37:9 A tempest blows out from its chamber,

icy cold from the driving winds. ²¹ 

37:10 The breath of God produces ice,

and the breadth of the waters freeze solid.

37:11 He loads the clouds with moisture; ²² 

he scatters his lightning through the clouds.

37:12 The clouds ²³  go round in circles,

wheeling about according to his plans,

to carry out ²⁴  all that he commands them

over the face of the whole inhabited world.

37:13 Whether it is for punishment ²⁵  for his land,

or whether it is for mercy,

he causes it to find its mark. ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 14:22

14:22 Do any of the worthless idols ²⁷  of the nations cause rain to fall?

Do the skies themselves send showers?

Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? ²⁸ 

So we put our hopes in you ²⁹ 

because you alone do all this.”

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 

[104:13]  ¹ tn Heb “from his upper rooms.”

[104:13]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “causes the grass to sprout up.”

[104:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “for the service of man” (see Gen 2:5).

[104:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “to cause food to come out from the earth.”

[11:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “which you are crossing over there to possess it.”

[11:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “rain of heaven.”

[11:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “seeks.” The statement reflects the ancient belief that God (Baal in Canaanite thinking) directly controlled storms and rainfall.

[11:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it” (so NIV); NASB, NRSV “always on it.”

[11:12]  ¹⁰ sn From the beginning to the end of the year. This refers to the agricultural year that was marked by the onset of the heavy rains, thus the autumn. See note on the phrase “the former and the latter rains” in v. 14.

[1:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and she arose, along with her daughters-in-law, and she returned from the region of Moab.”

[1:6]  ¹² tn Heb “in the region of Moab”; KJV, NRSV “in the country of Moab.” Since this is a repetition of the phrase found earlier in the verse, it has been shortened to “in Moab” in the present translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “had visited” or “taken note of.” The basic meaning of פָּקַד (paqad) is “observe, examine, take note of” (T. F. Williams, NIDOTTE 3:658), so it sometimes appears with זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”; Pss 8:4 [MT 5]; 106:4; Jer 14:10; 15:15; Hos 8:13; 9:9) and רָאָה (ra’ah, “to see”; Exod 4:31; Ps 80:14 [MT 15]; NIDOTTE 3:659). It often emphasizes the cause/effect response to what is seen (NIDOTTE 3:659). When God observes people in need, it is glossed “be concerned about, care for, attend to, help” (Gen 21:1; 50:24, 25; Exod 4:31; Ruth 1:6; 1 Sam 2:21; Jer 15:15; Zeph 2:7; Zech 10:3b; NIDOTTE 3:661). When humans are the subject, it sometimes means “to visit” needy people to bestow a gift (Judg 15:1; 1 Sam 17:18). Because it has such a broad range of meanings, its use here has been translated variously: (1) “had visited” (KJV, ASV, NASV, RSV; so BDB 823-24 s.v. פָּקַד); (2) “had considered” (NRSV) and “had taken note of” (TNK; so HALOT 955-57 s.v. פקד); and (3) “had come to the aid of” (NIV), “had blessed” (TEV), and “had given” (CEV; so NIDOTTE 3:657). When God observed the plight of his people, he demonstrated his concern by benevolently giving them food.

[1:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “by giving to them food.” The translation “reversing the famine and providing abundant crops” attempts to clarify the referent of לֶחֶם (lekhem, “food”) as “crops” and highlights the reversal of the famine that began in v. 1. The infinitive construct לָתֵת לָהֶם לָחֶם (latet lahem lakhem) may denote (1) purpose: “[he visited his people] to give them food” or (2) complementary sense explaining the action of the main verb: “[he visited his people] by giving them food.” The term לֶחֶם (lakhem) here refers to agricultural fertility, the reversal of the famine in v. 1.

[37:6]  ¹⁵ tn The verb actually means “be” (found here in the Aramaic form). The verb “to be” can mean “to happen, to fall, to come about.”

[37:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and [to the] shower of rain and shower of rains, be strong.” Many think the repetition grew up by variant readings; several Hebrew mss delete the second pair, and so many editors do. But the repetition may have served to stress the idea that the rains were heavy.

[37:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Be strong.”

[37:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “by the hand of every man he seals.” This line is intended to mean with the heavy rains God suspends all agricultural activity.

[37:7]  ¹⁹ tc This reading involves a change in the text, for in MT “men” is in the construct. It would be translated, “all men whom he made” (i.e., all men of his making”). This is the translation followed by the NIV and NRSV. Olshausen suggested that the word should have been אֲנָשִׁים (’anashim) with the final ם (mem) being lost to haplography.

[37:7]  ²⁰ tn D. W. Thomas suggested a meaning of “rest” for the verb, based on Arabic. He then reads אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh) for man, and supplies a ם (mem) to “his work” to get “that every man might rest from his work [in the fields].”

[37:9]  ²¹ tn The “driving winds” reflects the Hebrew “from the scatterers.” This refers to the north winds that bring the cold air and the ice and snow and hard rains.

[37:11]  ²² tn The word “moisture” is drawn from רִי (ri) as a contraction for רְוִי (rÿvi). Others emended the text to get “hail” (NAB) or “lightning,” or even “the Creator.” For these, see the various commentaries. There is no reason to change the reading of the MT when it makes perfectly good sense.

[37:12]  ²³ tn The words “the clouds” are supplied from v. 11; the sentence itself actually starts: “and it goes round,” referring to the cloud.

[37:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “that it may do.”

[37:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “rod,” i.e., a rod used for punishment.

[37:13]  ²⁶ tn This is interpretive; Heb “he makes find it.” The lightning could be what is intended here, for it finds its mark. But R. Gordis (Job, 429) suggests man is the subject – let him find what it is for, i.e., the fate appropriate for him.

[14:22]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Is it not you, O Lord our God?” The words “who does” are supplied in the translation for English style.

[14:22]  ²⁹ tn The rhetorical negatives are balanced by a rhetorical positive.

[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).