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Summary
- In the Bible, rain is God’s gift: he alone sends it, in its season, on the good and the evil alike (Matthew 5:45).
- Moses promised Israel “the first rain and the latter rain”, the autumn and spring rains, as a sign of God’s care for the land (Deuteronomy 11:14).
- When God held the rain back, the prophets said it was a call to return to him, as Amos 4:7–8 shows.
- Elijah prayed with his face to the ground until a cloud “like a man’s hand” rose from the sea, and James says he was a man like us.
- Isaiah compares God’s word to rain that never returns empty, and Hosea and Isaiah speak of God raining down righteousness.
- Scripture never calls rain God’s tears, and it gives no rule for reading a shower or a dream of rain as a private message.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- The Holy Bible, King James Version (public domain), via BibleGateway: Genesis 7:11–12, 9:15; Exodus 16:4; Deuteronomy 11:10–17, 28:12, 28:23–24, 32:2; Judges 6:37–38; 1 Samuel 12:18; 1 Kings 17:1, 18:1, 18:42–45; Psalm 65:9–10, 72:6; Isaiah 45:8, 55:10–11; Jeremiah 3:3, 14:22; Ezekiel 34:26; Hosea 6:3, 10:12; Joel 2:23, 2:28; Amos 4:7–8; Matthew 5:44–45, 7:24–27; Luke 12:54–56, 13:4–5; John 11:35; Acts 2:16, 14:17; James 5:7, 5:17–18. Douay-Rheims Bible, 1899 American edition (public domain), via BibleGateway: Isaiah 45:8 and Psalm 71:6 (72:6 in the Hebrew numbering).
- Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and Brown-Driver-Briggs, entries 3138 yoreh (early or autumn rain) and 4456 malqosh (latter or spring rain), Bible Hub.
- Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 72, section 9, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8 (1888), New Advent.
- Agenzia Fides, “Vatican: Season of Advent (3), Rorate Caeli Desuper”, 25 November 2006.
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