He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass - The word גז gez, which we translate mown grass, more properly means pastured grass or pastured land; for the dew of the night is intended to restore the grass which has been eaten in the course of the day. This very idea the Chaldee has seized, and renders the place thus: "He shall descend gently, like rain upon the grass which has been eaten by the locust." But there seems to be a reference to the thick night dews which in summer fall on the pasturages, and become the means of restoring the grass consumed in the day-time by the cattle. This is finely expressed by the most accomplished of all poets and agriculturists: -
Et quantum longis carpent armenta diebus,
Exigua tantum gelidus ros nocte reponet.
Virg. Geor. ii., ver. 201.
"For what the day devours, the nightly dew
Shall to the morn by pearly drops renew."
Dryden.
Or to leave poetry, which always says too much or too little, the plain prose is: -
"And as much as the flocks crop in the long days,
So much shall the cold dew restore in one short night."
As showers that water the earth - The influence of the doctrine and Spirit of Christ on the soul of man shall be as grateful, as refreshing, and as fructifying, as the nightly dews on the cropped fields, and the vernal showers on the cultivated lands. Without his influence all tillage is vain; without him there can neither be seed nor fruit.