along the coast and in the low plains. Thin ice occa- sionally covers the pools for a few days, and while Por- ter was writing his Handbook; the snow was eight inches deep at Damascus, and the ice a quarter of an inch t hick. Rain continues to fall more or less during the month of March; it is very rare in April, and even in Lebanon the showers that occur are generally light. In the val- ley of the Jordan the barley harvest begins as early as the middle of April, and the wheat a fortnight later; in Lebanon the grain is seldom ripe before the middle of June. See Robinson {Biblical Researches, i. 429) ancl- Porter {Handbook, ch. xlviii). See Palestine.
With respect to the distinction between the early and the latter rains, Robinson observes that there are not at the present day " any particular periods of rain or succession of showers which might be regarded as distinct rainy seasons. The whole period from October to March now constitutes only one continued season of rain, without any regularly intervening term of pro- longed line weather. Unless, therefore, there have been some change in the climate, the early and the latter rains for which the husbandman waited witli longing seem rather to have implied the first showers of autumn which revived the parched and thirsty soil and pre- pared it for the seed ; and the later showers of spring, which continued to refresh and forward both the ripen- ing crops and the vernal products of the fields (James v, 7; Prov. xvi, 15). In April and May the sky is usual- ly serene ; showers occur occasionally, but they are mild and refreshing. On May 1 Robinson experienced show- ers at Jerusalem, and " at evening there were thunder and lightning (which are frequent in winter), with pleasant and reviving rain. May 6 was also remark- able for thunder and for several showers, some of which were quite heavy. The rains of both these days ex- tended far to the north, . . . but the occurrence of rain so late in the season was regarded as a very unusual cir- cumstance" {Biblical Researches, i, 430 [he is speaking of the year 1838]). In 1856, however, " there was very heavy rain accompanied with thunder all over the re- gion of Lebanon, extending to Beirut and Damascus, on May 28 and 29; but the oldest inhabitant had never seen the like before, and it created," says Porter ( Hand- book, ch. xlviii), "almost as much astonishment as the thunder and rain which Samuel brought upon the Is- raelites during the time of wheat harvest." During Dr. Robinson's stay at Beirut on his second visit to Pales- tine, in 1852, there were heavy rains in March, once for five days continuously, and the weather continued varia- ble, with occasional heavy rain, till the close of the first week in April. The "latter rains" thus continued this season for nearly a month later than usual, and the re- sult was afterwards seen in the very abundant crops of winter grain (Robinson, Biblical Researches, iii, 9). These details will, it is thought, better than any gen- eralized statement, enable the reader to form his judg- ment on the "former" and "latter" rains of Scripture, and maj? serve to introduce a remark or two on the question, about which some interest has been felt, whether there have been any change in the frequency and abundance of the rain in Palestine, or in the periods of its supply. It is asked whether " these stony hills, these deserted valleys," can be the land flowing with milk and honey; the land which God cared for; the land upon which were always the eyes of the Lord, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year (Deut. xi, 12). So far as relates to the other considera- tions which may account for diminished fertility, such as the decrease of population and industry, the neglect of terrace -culture and irrigation, and husbanding the supply of water, it may suffice to refer to the article on Agriculture, and to Stanley {Sinai and Palestine, p. 120-123). With respect to our more immediate sub- ject, it is urged that the very expression " flowing with milk and honey" implies abundant rains to keep alive the grass for the pasture of the numerous herds supply- ing the milk, ami to nourish the flowers clothing the
RAIN
SSG
RAINBOW
ii. .u bare hill-sides, from whence the bees might gather their stores of honey. Ii is urged thai the supply of rain in its due season a erne to be promised as contin- gent upon the fidelity of the people | Deut. xi, 13-15; Lev. nx\ i. 3 5 i, and thai as from time t" time, to pun- ish the people for their transgressions, " the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain" (Jer. iii. 3; 1 Kings x\ii. xviii), so now. in the great and long-continued apostasy oi the children of Is- rael, there bas come upon even the land of their for- feited inheritance a like long-continued withdrawal of tin favor of God, who claims the sending of rain as one oi his special prerogatives (Jer. xiv, 22). See Calen- dar. Jewish.
I be e.-uiy rains, ii is urged, are bj comparison scanty and interrupted, the latter rain- iia\ e altogi I her ceased, and hence, ii is maintained, the curse has been fulfilled, "Thy heaven thai is over thy bead shall be brass, and the earth thai is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust" i I lent. xxviii, 23, -1: Lev. xxvi. 19). Without entering here int.. i he consideration of the justness of the interpreta- tion which would assume these predictions of the with- holding of rain to he altogether different in the manner of their infliction from the other calamities denounced in these chapters of threatening, it would appear that, so far as the question of fact is concerned, i hen- is scarce- ly sufficient reason to imagine that anj meat and marked changeswith respect to the rains have taken place in Pal- estine. In early days, as now. rain was unknown for half the year; and if we may judge from the allusions in Prov. xvi. 15; Job xxix. ■_':>. the latter rain was even then, while greatly desired and longed for. thai which was somewhat precarious, by no means to be absolutely counted on as a matter of course. If we are to take as correct our translation of Joel ii. 23, "The latter rain in the first (month)," i.e. Nisan orAbib, answering to the latter part of March and the early part of April, the times of the latter rain in the days of the prophets would coincide with those in which it falls now. The same conclusion would he arrived at from Amos iv, 7, •■ I have withholden the rain from von when t here were yet three months to the har\ est." The rain here spoken of is i he latter rain, and an interval of three months be- tween t he ending of the rain and i he beginning of har- vest would seem to be in an average year as exceptional now as it wa- when Amos noted it as a judgment of God. We may infer also from the Song of Solomon, ii, 1 1 13, where is given a poetical description of the burst- ing-forth of vegetation in the spring, that when the -w inter" was past, the rain also was over and gone. We can hardly, by any extension of I In- term "winter." bring ii down to a later period than that during which the rains still fall.