Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.
Parallel translations
- WEB My doctrine will drop as the rain. My speech will condense as the dew, as the misty rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.
- KJV My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
- NKJV Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As raindrops on the tender herb, And as showers on the grass.
- NASB “May my teaching drip as the rain, My speech trickle as the dew, As droplets on the fresh grass, And as the showers on the vegetation.
- NLT Let my teaching fall on you like rain; let my speech settle like dew. Let my words fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses likens his teaching to rain and dew that nourish growing plants. It matters because God's word, when received, brings life and fruitfulness.
Overview
The imagery of gentle, life-giving rain pictures the refreshing, nurturing power of divine instruction. Just as moisture causes the grass to flourish, so God's word produces growth in His people. This portrait of the word as nourishment anticipates Jesus, the living water and bread of life, through whom God's truth gives lasting life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Isa 55:10–11For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,
- Ps 72:6May he be like rain that falls on freshly cut grass, like spring showers that water the earth.
- Mic 5:7Then the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which do not wait for man or linger for mankind.
- Job 29:22–23After my words, they spoke no more; my speech settled on them like dew.
- Hos 14:5I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.
- 2 Sam 23:4is like the light of the morning at sunrise of a cloudless dawn, the glistening after the rain on the sprouting grass of the earth.’
- 1 Cor 3:6–8I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
- Heb 6:7For land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is tended receives the blessing of God.
- Hos 6:4What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.
- Zech 10:1Ask the LORD for rain in springtime; the LORD makes the storm clouds, and He will give everyone showers of rain and crops in the field.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 32:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.