For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither,.... Rain and snow come down from the clouds in the heavens, and do not return again until they have done what they are sent to do, or have produced the following effects; otherwise they may be exhaled into vapours, as they often are, and drawn up again by the sun:
but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud; or, "inebriateth the earth" n; soaks into it, and reaches the seed that is sown in it, and causes that to spring up, and rise into stalk and ear:
that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; produce a sufficiency for food both for man and beast, and enough for seed to sow the ground with the following year.
n כי אם הרוה את ארץ εως αν μεθυση την γην, Sept.; "sed inebriats" Pagninus, Junius Tremellius "quin imo inebriavit terram", Montanus.