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מָטָר (Matar): Rain from the Hand of God · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. Today we're doing a linguistic
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investigation, and it's one that gets straight to the heart of
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divine sovereignty over creation.
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Instead of, you know, a big sweeping theological concept,
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we're really going to focus on a tiny grammatical structure, a
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single Hebrew root, mar, which is the word for rain.
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When you first hear that, it just sounds like, well,
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vocabulary. But the source material we got
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for this deep dives is incredibly technical.
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It gets right into the roots grammar it's cognates across
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other Semitic languages and what it means theologically in the
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Old Testament. Our job today is to use this one
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roots function as a kind of grammatical key, a shortcut
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maybe, to really get how the biblical authors describe God's
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interaction with the world through something as simple as
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sending rain from the sky. And this is really an exercise
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in trying to see the world through ancient eyes.
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What we find in the way Mahar is used is this.
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This all-encompassing view of YHWHS complete control over
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creation, the grammar itself actually builds a reality that
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forces you, the listener, to look past the natural event and
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see the sovereign actor behind it.
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The function of this word root holds both blessing and
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judgment, and they're both administered by YHWH, who's in
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command of the elements. It's a view that fits perfectly
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with our understanding of Providence.
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Nothing happens by accident. All things are caused by God,
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either, you know, directly or through secondary means.
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And the way this Hebrew verb works seems to demand that kind
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of theological posture. It really does.
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All right, let's unpack this right away, starting with a
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really surprising linguistic fact that that defines this
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whole root. OK, the word Meyer comes from
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the noun Meyer, which just means rain.
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That makes the verb A denominative verb.
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It's a verb that comes from a noun, but when you look at how
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it's used in Biblical Hebrew, something really big is missing.
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The simplest active form, the quinam stem, is just not there.
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And that absence, well, it's a huge deal, both for the grammar
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and for the theology. The quall or Cal stem would be
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the basic active form. It's the one that would normally
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translate as the simple impersonal statement it rained
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or to rain. But it's just not used.
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It's not a tested in Biblical Hebrew for this root, it's just
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gone. O If the language can't simply
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say the sky opened and it rained without assigning some kind of
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Causeway, where does that push the linguistic focus?
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Well, the structure itself forces the action away from
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being an impersonal, you know, meteorological event and towards
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something active and intentional.
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And the sources are very powerful to point out that this
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isn't just some Hebrew quirk, this preference for derived
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stems. You see it in related some
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medical languages to Chaldeic Syriac Arabic.
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It points to a much broader linguistic pattern where rain
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just isn't treated as an independent action.
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So the linguistic environment itself sort of pushes back
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against the idea of an autonomous weather system.
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Since the basic qual stem isn't an option, the authors have to
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use these derived stems. What are the 2 main ones they've
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return to? So we shift immediately to what
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are called the productive stems, the Hifil and the knee fall.
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These are the 2 main ways to talk about the action or state
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of raining. OK, the Hifil or HIF stem is
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causative. It means to make it rain or to
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cause rain to fall. Then the other one, the knee
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fall or NIF stem is passive. It means to be rained upon or to
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be watered with rain. If you just stop and think about
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that, what that means for our view of God's involvement in the
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world is just immense. The grammar itself stops you
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from reporting rain as a neutral thing.
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It immediately moves the focus to one of two questions,
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causation. Who is causing this water to
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fall, or reception? What is receiving this water?
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That's it. This structure inherently frames
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the act of rain as something that starts outside of the
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physical phenomenon itself. Rain is never just happening, it
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is always caused by an agent or it's received by a recipient.
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So the grammar is the perfect linguistic container for the
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theological view that YHWH is the main active subject of this
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verb. It demonstrates that doctrine of
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concursives where God's action works with or through the
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creation he sustains. And since we know the Old
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Testament authors are completely committed to monotheism and YHWH
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is sovereignty, the linguistic structure fits the theological
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message perfectly. It's almost as if the language
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itself grew in a way that would suppress any idea of chance.
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That's one way to interpret the data for sure.
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It conditions the hearer. When you're reading a text and
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the simple verb for a natural action just isn't there, you're
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automatically guided to look for the agent.
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Yeah. It's also interesting to see how
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ancient translators handled this causative structure when they
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were moving the text into Greek. For the Septuagint, the LXX, our
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sources say they had to pick terms that really captured that
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intentional caused action. They did for the verb nerd.
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The LXX uses a few different Greek terms.
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The most common one is brush, which shows up five times.
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They also use EPI Brusha once and kind of surprisingly nip to
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once. So what does brush get across
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that makes it a good choice for that cause of the hip fill?
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Well, brushes just means to moisten or to rain, but when you
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use it in the active voice, it often carries the sense of to
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pour forth or to cause to rain. So it keeps that active role
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that's implied by the Hebrew hip fill and EPI.
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Brushes just adds the preposition EPI, which means
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upon. So it means to rain upon, which
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is a perfect mirror for that common Hebrew structure.
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Him air owl cause to rain upon. So those are pretty
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straightforward ways of keeping that sense of a directed
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external. Action they are.
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But that last one you mentioned nip to that seems really
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different. Doesn't that usually mean to
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wash or to cleanse? It does, and that is a very
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specific translation choice. Nip 2 means to wash usually a
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part of the body, like your hands or your feet.
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This usage might suggest a context where the rain is being
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seen as a cleansing action, maybe ritually or
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metaphorically, not just as a weather event.
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I see the sources don't really give the specific context for
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that single use, but it shows the translators were grappling
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with the theological and the physical meanings of the root.
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They sometimes opted for the effect, you know, the washing or
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cleansing, rather than the direct cause of the reigning.
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So even in translation, you see the ripple effect of the
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grammar. The translators couldn't just
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pick a neutral word for precipitation, they had to
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choose words that implied active control or a specific result.
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And that really sets the stage for looking at the Heimfill,
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where YHWH is always the active subject.
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OK, let's turn our attention then completely to the hydrophil
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stem, the causative one. This is where the sheer scope of
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YHWH is operation in the physical world is really laid
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out for us. The hipfill is the standard
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active verb for myth, and it always communicates causation to
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cause rain to fall to send rain. And the sources confirm again
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and again that the main subject, the agent, is YHWH.
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And the utility of the hip fill is pretty extraordinary.
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It manages to capture YHWHS control over basic creation,
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miraculous provision, and punitive judgement all inside 1
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grammatical framework. All with one stem.
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All with one stem we can basically break down the hip.
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Fills meaning into 3 distinct theologically heavy categories,
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all unified by this underlying idea of causing something to
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fall from the sky. Let's start with the first one
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most basic function YHWH, causing water, liquid or solid
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to fall from the heavens. This is the direct application
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of the verb to the weather. This is the core meaning to
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cause it to rain or to send rain down.
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The key point here is that the sources identify a common, very
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precise Hebrew construction used for this.
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And that literally means. Literally, he caused rain to
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fall upon, which really underscores the deliberate
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nature of the action and the precise targeting of whatever is
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receiving it. We see this right at the
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beginning of Scripture, don't we?
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It connects it immediately to God's creative and sustaining
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work, like in Genesis 2.5 describing the world before man,
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YHWH had not yet him, had not yet caused it to rain upon the
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ground. Exactly the state of the pre
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Eden earth is defined by the absence of this caused action.
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And then not long after, during the flood, YHWH asserts his
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control again, saying he will marry and cause it to rain on
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the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.
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So the verb is used to mark the beginning of creation and then
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the recreation through judgement.
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It's an assertion of exclusive domain.
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Absolutely. Just think about that challenge
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in Job 38, where YHWH interrogates Job from the
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whirlwind, asking who causes it to rain on a land where no one
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lives on the wilderness without a man.
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This is a claim of competence that belongs only to the
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Creator. No human agency, no idol, can do
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this. The grammatical agent of the
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Heffelfer rain is, in theological reality, unique.
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I find the negative usage you see in Isaiah 5.6 to be just as
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telling. God is threatening the
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unfaithful vineyard and he says he will command the clouds may
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haven't their mud to keep rain from falling upon it.
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Yes. So the causative power is shown
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by the withholding of that necessary life source.
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That's a critical theological point we have to sit with.
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Even the denial or the stopping of rain is not passive neglect.
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It is an active deliberate choice by the divine subject
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using the exact same causative hip fill stem.
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It shows that both providing and restricting life are completely
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within YHWHS control. And while YHWH is the ultimate
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author, the sources do mention that sometimes the immediate
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subject of the HIF fill can be the clouds, the ensem.
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Yes, but this doesn't reduce YHWHS sovereignty at all, as
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it's implied in that Isaiah passage.
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When the clouds are the grammatical subject, they're
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just acting as secondary instruments.
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They're operating under a strict, predetermined divine
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command. Rain is still a caused action.
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The rain is still a caused action, but the mechanism of the
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causation might be spelled out. This mirrors the Reformed
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understanding of secondary causes.
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The clouds act, but only because God commands them to.
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Act So even when we're just talking about meteorology, we
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are forced to talk about metaphysics.
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That's exactly what the grammar makes you do.
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OK, now let's move to how this causative Henfield expands
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beyond just liquid water. The stem is broadened to mean
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provide, or more formally, rain down, based on that deep
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theological idea that rain itself is the primary necessary
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provision for life. This usage connects YHWH's
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control over the atmosphere directly to his control over
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sustenance. It makes the hip fill of Mao
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into the grammatical tool used to describe miraculous heavenly
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supply. It links the ordinary miracle of
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rain to the extraordinary miracle of mana.
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The Exodus story gives us the most spectacular example of this
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the Mana. The Israelites needed food, and
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the same verb that sends water is used to send bread.
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Indeed, the Hickel and Phil stem describes raining down food,
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specifically mana or man or heavenly bread.
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Lamb. Exodus 16.4 is the key verse.
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Behold, I will, ma'am, cause to rain bread from heaven for you.
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The fact that the same verb is used for atmospheric water and
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for miraculous food. It argues really strongly that
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the author saw both events as coming from the same divine tap.
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It speaks to the efficiency of God's control, doesn't it?
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He does doesn't need a different verb root to send something
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other than water. The act of causing to fall from
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heaven is linguistically consistent no matter what the
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material is. Right.
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And that consistency is very telling.
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Psalm 78.24 also says God way Amir cause to rain down mana for
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them to eat, and then in verse 27 it escalates to meat.
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God way Amir cause to rain down meat.
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Or sure, it says flesh as the dust and feathered fowls as the
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sand of the Seas. That image of flesh falling like
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dust or sand. It's meant to convey the sheer,
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almost overwhelming abundance of the supply, mirroring the
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abundance of a life giving rainstorm.
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And grammatically, there's a small detail worth noting.
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Our sources point out that the Exodus 16.4 example about mana
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is used without the typical preposition owl, meaning a pawn
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which you normally need to specify the recipient.
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Why would that be? Well, the omission might stress
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the direct provision to Israel. Perhaps it's emphasizing the
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miracle itself rather than the land receiving it, though
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that's, you know, open to interpretation.
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In either case, the HEM Phil asserts YHWHS absolute authority
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over provision. He manages the weather and by
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extension, he manages existence. He sustains life both chemically
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with rain and calorically with bread and meat, all using the
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exact same grammatical tool. Now we have to look at the dark
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side of this grammatical coin. The third category for the hem
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Phil's usage. It keeps the idea of causing an
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object or substance to fall from the sky in great abundance.
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But now the purpose is punishment.
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The action is still to cause to fall.
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For those dramatic, terrifying historical event that uses this
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stem has to be the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
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No question, Genesis 19.24 records YHWH Ryamiyar cause to
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rain down fire and sulfur or brimstone.
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Go rewash upon the wicked cities.
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The verb choice is so deliberate.
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It is by using my in the hay fill for fire and brimstone.
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The text directly links the spectacular supernatural act of
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judgment to the very same sovereign mechanism YHWH uses to
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deliver life giving ordinary rain.
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This means the difference between a blessing and a curse
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is not the agent or the action causing to fall, but the
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substance and the recipient. Precisely, and we see this
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consistent application across other judgments.
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For example, during the plagues on Egypt, the destructive force
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of hail burra is described using this highfill stem in Exodus 9.
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God mammary causes to rain hails, a natural thing
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weaponized for a divine purpose. And this application extends
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into figurative judgment against the wicked too.
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Psalm 11.6 says YHWH Yammer causes to rain down snares, palm
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fire, and brimstone on the wicked.
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The snares are metaphorical, but the verb used to deliver them is
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concrete. This combination of concrete
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action and abstract consequences compelling Ezekiel 38.22 in A
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Prophecy against Gog lists a whole catalog of judgments using
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this mechanism. It says God executes judgment
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with pestilence and blood, sweeping rain, hailstones, fire
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and brimstone. And notice the order there.
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Right. Natural actions, Sweeping rain.
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Hailstone stones are blended seamlessly with supernatural
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destructive actions, fire and brimstone, all under the
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umbrella of the half full of MIT.
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This shows the incredible functional efficiency of this
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verb root. The hip fills.
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Construction usually takes the direct object, hail, fire, mana,
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and then it's followed by the preposition owl or a pawn, the
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recipient, whether that's the land, the faithful, or the
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wicked. And this is the essential
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synthesis of the hip fill. The single causative stem covers
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meteorological provision, miraculous sustenance and
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sweeping destruction. The theological conclusion is
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that YHWHS cosmic action is unitary and fully sovereign.
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So the effect, whether it's life, nourishment, or utter
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annihilation, depends entirely on the covenant context and the
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nature of the one receiving it. Yes.
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The grammar refuses to acknowledge any middle ground
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where rain or Providence just happens by chance.
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It just reinforces that core concept.
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The agent is always in control, whether he's delivering the soft
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life giving rain of spring or the hard destructive brimstone
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of judgement. That detailed look at the his
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Phil really establishes YHWH as the exclusive and necessary
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agent behind the action. But if the his Phil describes
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YHWH causing the action, we now need to look at the flip side.
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Which stem describes the land or the vineyard, or the recipient
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receiving it? That brings us to the nephal
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stem. While the hisfal is the active
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causative verb, the nephal is it's reflexive or passive
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counterpart. It means to be rained upon or to
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be watered with rain. So this describes the state or
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the location receiving the rain, shifting the focus from the
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actor to the object. Right.
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And the power of this contrast is seen most clearly when the
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two stems work together. Our sources point to Amos 4.7 as
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a perfect example of this dynamic, all in a single verse.
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Can you walk us through that verse?
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So Amos 4.7 describes why HWH imposing this calculated
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judgment, showing absolute precision over the landscape.
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He says I withheld the rain from you, so I would cause it to rain
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on one city and not 'cause it to rain on another city.
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But then the verse continues, One piece shall be rained upon,
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and that uses the imperfect nifl form temea, and the piece we're
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on it shall not cause rain to fall, shall wither.
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The contrast there is spectacular because the land is
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being manipulated with surgical precision.
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Absolutely. The first piece of land is
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described passively. Temeyer shall be rained upon.
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The second piece of land is defined by the absence of the
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causative HIFL action where God does not 'cause rain to fall.
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The NIFAL passive focuses only on the reception of the benefit,
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while the Hip feel causative right next to it focuses on the
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agent's decision to act or not to act.
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The grammar shows why HWH dividing the land with a
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meteorological scalpel. It does.
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It also gives us a clear picture of theological reality.
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Since the land cannot make itself rain, the only way it
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gets wet is by being rained upon, which makes the nifal the
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only possible verb form from the perspective of the land itself.
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And for completeness, our sources also mentioned that
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other rarer passive stems exist, or at least they're noted in
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textual conjectures, which also mean rained upon.
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Right. The Hofal and Pula stems are
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both passive or intensive passive forms, while nephal is
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the standard. These other forms would offer
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alternative ways to emphasize that passive state, maybe
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describing the land as having been thoroughly rained upon.
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So where do we see those suggested?
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For instance, in Ezekiel 22.24, which describes the land of
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Israel as one that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the
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day of indignation, the Hebrew text sometimes suggests a
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reading that could be replaced by the passive hoffal participle
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or the pool participle. And even though these are rare
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or, you know, theoretical, they reinforce the idea that the
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grammatical system had dedicated ways to talk about the
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consequence of the highfill action, the passive reception.
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Precisely, the system is structurally complete.
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If someone causes the rain which is the highfill, something has
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to receive the rain which is the knee fall or hoefal or pool.
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Let's widen the scope now, moving from the internal
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workings of Biblical Hebrew to its linguistic relatives.
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Does this unique behavior of MA, specifically the missing qual
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and the preference for the causative stem, does that carry
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through the rest of the Semitic family?
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It does, which really strengthens the argument that
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this pattern is ancient and deep seated.
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The root MA has strong cognates across many Semitic languages
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and dialects. Let's start with the earliest
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evidence we have. We can start with Ugaritic,
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which predates Hebrew quite dramatically.
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The root is attested there as ma.
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This shows how old the root itself is appearing in texts
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from ancient Ugarit. Now, while we can't definitively
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confirm the exact grammatical constraints on the quall in
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Ugaritic, the roots presence in a context focused on weather and
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fertility is very significant. And what about the more widely
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spread languages? In Arabic, the verbal form is
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Mahara, and critically, the sources confirm the roots
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behavior in Shaldaik, noting that shared tendency across
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Semitic languages to avoid or rarely use the basic simple stem
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for this particular natural action.
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It reinforces the idea that reigning is generally seen as an
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action that needs an external subject.
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OK, let's talk about the Aramaic branch, since it so often runs
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parallel to Hebrew. In Syriac, which is a dialect of
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Aramaic, the verb is Maha. It's used across various stems,
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the peel which is the simple or quall equivalent, the Pawel and
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the Afel which is the causative Hifel equivalent.
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So the simple form exists there. It might exist, but the
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causative FL is highly active, and critically in Jewish,
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Aramaic and Targumic dialects, they frequently use the Afel
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stem, specifically the form in array.
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And the use of Afel in Aramaic is key because it does the exact
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same job as the Hifel in Hebrew. It means to cause terrain.
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That's right. The widespread and active
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preference for the these causative stems, the Hefel and
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the Afel, across Hebrew, Middle Hebrew, Jewish, Aramaic and
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Syriac shows this linguistic continuity.
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It shows that generations of speakers and authors across the
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Near East instinctively framed the act of precipitation as a
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caused action, one that required an initiator.
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So the grammar denies the very possibility of meteorological
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indifference. If you want to talk about rain
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in these ancient languages, you have to specify who is
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responsible for the waterfalling or who is on the receiving end.
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And that shared linguistic reality deeply shapes the way
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the theological messages of the Old Testament are communicated.
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Before we move on, I want to go back to a question I had.
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If near skips the quall, are there other major Hebrew verbs
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for natural events that also show this kind of tendency?
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That is a great question. While ma is maybe the most
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famous and clearly defined example of a verb skipping the
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quall for these kinds of reasons, it isn't totally
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unique. Verbs related to specific
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atmospheric actions, like bread for hail, which only appears in
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the hifelini fall, or certain expressions involving sound or
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fire, can sometimes show these constraints favoring the
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causative or passive stems. But the comprehensive control
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shown by Mao over provision, blessing, and judgment makes it
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a real standout case in Hebrew grammar for theological
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application. It truly functions as the
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central heavenly faucet verb. We've established the verb
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roots. Function is the instrument of
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divine control. Now let's turn to the subject
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that is being controlled, the noun form mire, which simply
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means rain. Mire refers generally to the
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substance or the process of water falling and drops from the
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sky. It's useful to distinguish it
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from its conceptual sibling Ghashim, which means a shower or
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a heavy rain. So Meyer's the general term.
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Right, while they're often used synonymously or in parallel,
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Mater tends to describe the general precipitation needed for
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life, while gum might imply more intensity or a sudden downpour.
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When the LXX translators were dealing with the noun Mar, our
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sources say that they overwhelmingly used hueydos, the
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standard Greek word for rain, which appears 36 times.
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That seems pretty consistent. It is.
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But there was one curious translation choice mentioned,
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yes. While hoitos is standard,
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there's a single instance where the noun mar is translated using
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the Greek verb horash, which means to see.
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Which is highly unusual. The noun is being rendered as a
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completely unrelated verb. What could possibly account for
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that linguistic jump? Was it just a scribal error or
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is there a reason they connected rain to site?
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Since the textual sources don't give a definite answer, we are
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left to speculate. It could have been an error or a
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phonetic misunderstanding, but if we assume it was intentional,
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it might relate to the theological context.
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How so? Rain in the arid Near East isn't
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just common background noise, it's an event.
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It's a sign that is actively seen and recognized as an act of
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God, especially when it happens in unusual seasons.
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The rain itself is a visible sign of YHWHS covenant
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faithfulness or His judgment. So the translation might be
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emphasizing the visible, observable nature of the divine
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provision. It's possible, but regardless of
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that specific translation quirk, the noun Meyer carries profound
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theological weight, especially when you're talking about the
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relationship between YHWH and the land of Canaan.
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It is absolutely central. Rain is inherently seen as a
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blessing sent and withheld by YHWH.
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Unlike Egypt, which relied on the predictable flooding of the
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Nile, Canaan was completely dependent on seasonal rainfall.
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Therefore, reignmare became the primary barometer of covenant
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fidelity. We see this most clearly laid
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out in Deuteronomy, the covenant document itself.
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Exactly. Deuteronomy 28 ties obedience
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directly to the availability of the reign of thy land.
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Mirrorai verse 12 promises that YHWH will open His good
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treasure, the heavens to give the mire to the land in its
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season. But then verse 24 threatens the
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curse. Why HWH will turn the rain of
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the land into powder and dust. This makes rain a fundamental
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part of the covenant structure. It's not just meteorology, it's
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morality reflected in the weather.
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In this context, mire is not just water.
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It's domine approval. It's a visible sign of the
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Lord's favor that's necessary to water the land, and the absence
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of rain immediately signals judgement.
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Which is why the concept of rain is used so extensively in
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figurative ways throughout Scripture.
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Yes, it is. So how does the concept of brain
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get lifted out of the weather report and applied
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metaphorically? Well, first, it's used as a
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powerful simile for refreshment and revival, just as rain
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revised the dry earth. Spiritual instruction or
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blessing can be described as falling like mire.
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And 2nd, tying back to the causative verb, it's used as a
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sign sent by extraordinary supernatural means.
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The example in First Samuel 12 point something is a prime case.
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The prophet Samuel demonstrates YHW HS authority and judgment
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during the harvest season, which is traditionally the dry season
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in Israel. Samuel calls upon YHWH to send
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Mar rain at a time when rain is unseasonable.
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Which is an action that's both supernatural and punitive,
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confirming Samuel's words and showing the people's sin and
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demanding a king. Exactly.
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And that concept of the unseasonable rain mare bakar, or
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rain in the harvest, is a special category, isn't it?
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It is. It's the right substance, life,
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life giving water, but delivered at the wrong time, disrupting
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the harvest cycle. This disruption indicates
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judgement or a divine intrusion that overrides the natural
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order. He shows that YHWHS control is
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not just over the quantity of rain, but the timing, the
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location and the seasonal appropriateness.
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And finally, the noun is used, just like the verb, to describe
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destructive power. The force and overwhelming
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abundance of a downpour can be compared to destruction or
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judgement. Whether it's literal as a
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blessing or figurative as a sign of judgement, the noun Meyer is
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tightly bound to YHWHS sovereign control.
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It reinforces the picture that the verb established the root.
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Meyer functions as a heavenly tap operated by the Creator,
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delivering exactly what is necessary life, sustenance or
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precise judgement calibrated perfectly to the covenant
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context. It seems impossible to separate
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the grammar from the theology in this case.
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The linguistic structure itself preaches the doctrine of God's
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constant act of Providence. The Hebrew text leaves the
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reader with no escape from recognizing the actor.
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This deep dive into the Rootmar has given us a surprisingly
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detailed window into the divine economy of Providence.
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We established the two main grammatical modes, the Hifel
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causative detailing why HW is active role in sending literal
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rain, mana, fire and brimstone on the Niffel passive,
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describing the reception, the object or the land being rained
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upon, as we saw with that surgical precision in Amos 4.7.
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What becomes clear through synthesizing all this lexical
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analysis is the unified nature of divine action.
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Every drop of water, every miracle of provision, and every
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act of judgement is contained within the causative grammar of
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this single word root right? The grammar dictates that YH and
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WH must be acknowledged as the sole sufficient cause for all
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precipitation and precipitation like events.
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It allows for no space for random chance.
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It forces the theological issue before the meteorological one
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can even be raised. It absolutely does.
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The language is structured to reflect reality as the Old
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Testament authors understood it, a world under constant, detailed
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divine supervision. And this leaves us with a final
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thought for you to consider. If the simplest way to talk
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about rain, the simple act of quall, is unavailable to the
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authors of Scripture, and they are left only with the options
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of causing rain or being rained upon, how does that grammatical
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reality contrast with our modern secularized view of weather,
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where we instinctively speak of impersonal pressure systems and
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cold fronts? Does the Hebrew text condition
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us, even when we read about a simple rain shower, to
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automatically look for the sovereign actor who is
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commanding the clouds and opening the heavens?