Rain

In a land that lived on the rains, God’s gift of rain was a sign of his care, and its absence was a warning. “Then I will give you rain in due season,” he says to Israel if they keep his commands (Leviticus 26:4), and Deuteronomy 11 promises “the first rain and the latter rain”. Solomon’s prayer asks what to do “when heaven is shut up, and there is no rain,” and Amos hears God say he sent rain on one city and not on another. These passages speak to Israel under the law, and Christians differ on how directly they apply today. Psalm 72 pictures a good king as rain on mown grass. Deuteronomy 11 is a fine place to start.

21 verses

Leviticus

Leviticus 26:3

If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

Leviticus 26:4

Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 11:13

And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

Deuteronomy 11:14

That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

Deuteronomy 11:17

And then the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.

Deuteronomy 28:24

The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

2 Samuel

2 Samuel 5:17

But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold.

2 Samuel 5:18

The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.

2 Samuel 5:19

And David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the LORD said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand.

2 Samuel 5:20

And David came to Baalperazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baalperazim.

2 Samuel 5:21

And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them.

1 Kings

1 Kings 8:35

When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:

1 Kings 8:36

Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.

2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 7:13

If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Job

Job 37:6

For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.

Psalms

Psalms 72:6

He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

Isaiah

Isaiah 30:23

Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 3:3

Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

Jeremiah 5:24

Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

Amos

Amos 4:7

And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

There are three Hebrew words used to denote the rains of different seasons, (1.) Yoreh (Hos. 6:3), or moreh (Joel 2:23), denoting the former or the early rain. (2.) Melqosh, the “latter rain” (Prov. 16:15). (3.) Geshem, the winter rain, “the rains.” The heavy winter rain is mentioned in Gen. 7:12; Ezra 10:9; Cant. 2:11. The “early” or “former” rains commence in autumn in the latter part of October or beginning of November (Deut. 11:14; Joel 2:23; comp. Jer. 3:3), and continue to fall heavily for two months. Then the heavy “winter rains” fall from the middle of December to March. There is no prolonged fair weather in Palestine between October and March. The “latter” or spring rains fall in March and April, and serve to swell the grain then coming to maturity (Deut. 11:14; Hos. 6:3). After this there is ordinarily no rain, the sky being bright and cloudless till October or November.

Read the full entry

Rain is referred to symbolically in Deut. 32:2; Ps. 72:6; Isa. 44:3, 4; Hos. 10:12.

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

In the Bible "early rain" signifies the rain of the autumn, (11:14) and "latter rain" the rain of spring. (Proverbs 16:1,5) For six months in the year, from May to October, no rain falls, the whole land becomes dry, parched and brown. The autumnal rains are eagerly looked for, to prepare the earth for the reception of the seed. These, the early rains, commence about the latter end of October continuing through November and December. January and February are the coldest months, and snow falls, sometimes to the depth of a foot or more, at Jerusalem, but it does not lie long; it is very seldom seen along the coast and in the low plains. Rain continues to fall more or less during the month of March it is very rare in April. Robinson observes that there are not, at the present day, "any particular periods of rain or succession of showers which might be regarded as distinct rainy seasons. The whole period from October to March now constitutes only one continued season of rain, without any regularly-intervening term of prolonged fine weather. Unless therefore, there has been some change in the climate, the early and the latter rains, for which the husbandman waited with longing, seem rather to hare implied the first showers of autumn--which revived the parched and thirsty soil and prepared it for the seed --and the later showers of spring, which continued to refresh and forward both the ripening crops and the vernal products of the fields." (James 5:7; Proverbs 16:15)