Yesaya 32:20

32:20 you will be blessed,

you who plant seed by all the banks of the streams, ¹ 

you who let your ox and donkey graze. ² 

Yeremia 14:4

14:4 They are dismayed because the ground is cracked ³ 

because there has been no rain in the land.

The farmers, too, are dismayed

and bury their faces in their hands.

Yehezkiel 19:13

19:13 Now it is planted in the wilderness,

in a dry and thirsty land. ⁴ 

Yoel 1:17-18

1:17 The grains of seed ⁵  have shriveled beneath their shovels. ⁶ 

Storehouses have been decimated

and granaries have been torn down, for the grain has dried up.

1:18 Listen to the cattle groan! ⁷ 

The herds of livestock wander around in confusion ⁸ 

because they have no pasture.

Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

[32:20]  ¹ tn Heb “by all the waters.”

[32:20]  ² tn Heb “who set free the foot of the ox and donkey”; NIV “letting your cattle and donkeys range free.”

[32:20]  sn This verse seems to anticipate a time when fertile land is available to cultivate and crops are so abundant that the farm animals can be allowed to graze freely.

[14:4]  ³ tn For the use of the verb “is cracked” here see BDB 369 s.v. חָתַת Qal.1 and compare the usage in Jer 51:56 where it refers to broken bows. The form is a relative clause without relative pronoun (cf., GKC 486-87 §155.f). The sentence as a whole is related to the preceding through a particle meaning “because of” or “on account of.” Hence the subject and verb have been repeated to make the connection.

[19:13]  ⁴ sn This metaphor depicts the Babylonian exile of the Davidic dynasty.

[1:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “seed.” The phrase “the grains of” does not appear in the Hebrew, but has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[1:17]  ⁶ tc This line is textually uncertain. The MT reads “the seed shrivels in their shovels/clods.” One Qumran manuscript (4QXXII^c) reads “the heifers decay in [their] s[talls].” LXX reads “the heifers leap in their stalls.”

[1:17]  tn These two lines of v. 17 comprise only four words in the Hebrew; three of the four are found only here in the OT. The translation and meaning are rather uncertain. A number of English versions render the word translated “shovels” as “clods,” referring to lumps of soil (e.g., KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[1:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “how the cattle groan!”

[1:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “the herds of cattle are confused.” The verb בּוּךְ (bukh, “be confused”) sometimes refers to wandering aimlessly in confusion (cf. Exod 14:3).