And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
I will send grass. Undoubtedly the special blessing of the former and the latter rain was one principal cause of the extraordinary fertility of Canaan in ancient times. That blessing was promised to the Israelites as a temporal reward for their fidelity to the national covenant. It was threatened to be withdrawn on their disobedience or apostasy; and most signally is the execution of that threatening seen in the present sterility of Palestine (Deuteronomy 28:23; 1 Kings 8:35; Jeremiah 3:3; Jeremiah 14:2).
Mr. Lowthian, an English farmer, who was struck during his journey from Joppa to Jerusalem by not seeing a blade of grass, where even in the poorest localities of Britain some wild vegetation is found, directed his attention particularly to the subject, and pursued the inquiry during a month's residence in Jerusalem, where he learned that a miserably small quantity of milk is daily sold to the inhabitants at a very high rate, and that chiefly donkey's milk. 'Most clearly,' says he, 'did I perceive that the barrenness of large portions of the country was owing to the cessation of the early and latter rain, and that the absence of grass and flowers made it no longer the land (Deuteronomy 11:9) flowing with milk and honey.'