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22 Can any idols of the nations bring rain,
    or can the heavens give showers?
Is it not you, O Lord our God?
    We set our hope on you,
    for it is you who do all this.(A)

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23 O children of Zion, be glad,
    and rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given the early rain[a] for your vindication;
    he has poured down for you abundant rain,
    the early and the later rain, as before.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.23 Meaning of Heb uncertain

24 They do not say in their hearts,
    “Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
    the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
    the weeks appointed for the harvest.”(A)

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He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth;
    he makes lightnings for the rain
    and brings out the wind from his storehouses.(A)

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23 He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures,(A)

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21 They made me jealous with what is no god,
    provoked me with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with what is no people,
    provoke them with a foolish nation.(A)

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Restoration of Judah and Israel

10 Ask rain from the Lord
    in the season of the spring rain,
from the Lord who makes the storm clouds,
    who gives showers of rain to you,[a]
    the vegetation in the field to everyone.(A)
For the teraphim[b] utter nonsense,
    and the diviners see lies;
the dreamers tell false dreams
    and give empty consolation.
Therefore the people[c] wander like sheep;
    they suffer for lack of a shepherd.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 10.1 Heb them
  2. 10.2 Or household gods
  3. 10.2 Heb they

16 When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
    and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightnings for the rain,
    and he brings out the wind from his storehouses.(A)

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19 O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
    my refuge in the day of trouble,
to you shall the nations come
    from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our ancestors have inherited nothing but lies,
    worthless things in which there is no profit.(A)

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15 They are worthless, a work of delusion;
    at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

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29 No, they are all a delusion;
    their works are nothing;
    their images are empty wind.(A)

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I wait for the Lord; my soul waits,
    and in his word I hope;(A)

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21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
    for I wait for you.(A)

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26 to bring rain on a land where no one lives,
    on the desert, which is empty of human life,(A)
27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
    and to make the ground put forth grass?(B)

28 “Has the rain a father,
    or who has fathered the drops of dew?(C)

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14 For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.”(A)

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Elijah Predicts a Drought

17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe[a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 17.1 Gk: Heb of the settlers

12 The Lord will open for you his rich storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all your undertakings. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.(A)

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25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul that seeks him.(A)
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.(B)

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15 “People,[a] why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.(A) 16 In past generations he allowed all peoples to follow their own ways,(B) 17 yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good, giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.”(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 14.15 Gk Men

Trust and Joy in the Midst of Trouble

17 Though the fig tree does not blossom
    and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails
    and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold
    and there is no herd in the stalls,(A)
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will exult in the God of my salvation.(B)
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer
    and makes me tread upon the heights.[a]

To the leader: with stringed[b] instruments.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 3.19 Heb my heights
  2. 3.19 Heb my stringed

But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
    I will wait for the God of my salvation;
    my God will hear me.(A)

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And I also withheld the rain from you
    when there were still three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city
    and send no rain on another city;
one field would be rained upon,
    and the field on which it did not rain withered;

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13 When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
    and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
    and brings out the wind from his storehouses.(A)

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12 The blacksmith works it with a tool over the coals, shaping it with hammers and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint.(A) 13 The carpenter stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he makes it in human form, with human beauty, to be set up in a shrine.(B) 14 He cuts down cedars or chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it can be used as fuel. Part of it he takes and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it, makes it a carved image and bows down before it.(C) 16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he roasts meat, eats it,[a] and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Ah, I am warm[b] by the fire!” 17 The rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, bows down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god!”(D)

18 They do not know, nor do they comprehend, for their eyes are shut, so that they cannot see, and their minds as well, so that they cannot understand.(E) 19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. Now shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”(F) 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?”(G)

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Footnotes

  1. 44.16 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb he eats, he roasts a roast
  2. 44.16 Q ms: MT I see

God’s Promise to Zion

18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him.(A)

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