to pray to God · verb — aorist middle deponent indicative, 3rd person singular
again
πάλινpalin
G3825
(adverbially) anew · adverb
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
heaven
οὐρανὸςouranos
G3772
the sky · noun — nominative singular masculine
gave
ἔδωκενedōken
G1325
to give (used in a very wide application · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
rain
ὑετὸνhu'eton
G5205
rain · noun — accusative singular masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
earth
γῆgē
G1093
soil · noun — nominative singular feminine
forth
ἐβλάστησενeblastēsen
G985
to germinate · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
her
αὐτῆς.¶autēs
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular feminine
fruit
καρπὸνkarpon
G2590
fruit (as plucked) · noun — accusative singular masculine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Kings 18:42-45 So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face betw…
Jeremiah 14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? ther…
1 Kings 18:18 And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and th…
Acts 14:17 Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our heart…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on James 5:12–end
This epistle now drawing to a close, the penman goes off very quickly from one thing to another: hence it is that matters so very different are insisted on in these few verses.
I. The sin of swearing is cautioned against: But above all things, my brethren, swear not, etc., Jam 5:12. Some understand this too restrictedly, as if the meaning were, "Swear not at your persecutors, at those that reproach you and say all manner of evil of you; be not put into a passion by the injuries they do you, so as in your passion to be provoked to swear." This swearing is no doubt forbidden here: and it will not excuse those that are guilty of this sin to say they sear only when they are provoked to it, and b…
prayed . . . and--that is, "and so." Mark the connection between the prayer and its accomplishment.
her fruit--her usual and due fruit, heretofore withheld on account of sin. Three and a half years is the time also that the two witnesses prophesy who "have power to shut and open heaven that it rain not."
Adam Clarke on James 5:18
And he prayed again - This second prayer is not mentioned in the history in express words, but as in Kg1 18:42, it is said, He cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees; that was probably the time of the second praying, namely, that rain might come, as this was the proper posture of prayer.
John Gill on James 5:18
And he prayed again,.... 1 Kings 18:42. Here also is no express mention of his prayer, but it may be concluded from his gestures; and so the Jewish interpreters understand these words, "Elijah went up to the top of Carmel", "to pray, and he cast himself down upon the earth", , "to pray for rain; and he put his face between his knees", "and prayed, and said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea"; and this he said while he was "in his prayers" (i): and the effect of this his prayer was,
and the heaven gave rain; see 1 Kings 18:45.
And the earth brought forth her fruit: which for the years past it had not; hence there was a sore famine in the land, 1 Kings 18:2. Now the apostle c…
The Church Fathers
It is rash to think that anything which spiritual men say is excessive or badly stated, for what is said is not mindless or superficial. For this man was a prophet, and the greatest of the prophets, on fire with zeal for God. What he said, he said by the inspiration of God's Spirit, which explains its extraordinary character.
The word of the prophet went forth and suddenly the air was changed, the sky became bronze, not because its nature was altered but because of the electric effect which was produced. Suddenly the elements were transformed, as the prophet's word fell like a fiery bolt on the hollow parts of the earth, and immediately everything dried up, became a desert and disappeared.
And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, etc. Therefore, he prayed once and before and after, and this one Elijah obtained such great and mighty things; how much more, then, is the frequent prayer of many righteous people worth? But lest our frailty should tremble, thinking that it cannot do similar things to such a great prophet, who deserved to be taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot, the blessed James, intending to speak about his prayer, thus began: Elijah was a man like us, subject to suffering. For he was a man, although second to none in virtue, like us in the origin of the flesh, subject to suffering as we are, both in the frailty of the mind and the flesh. For he showed that he was frail in the flesh by seeking sustenance from the widow at Zarephath. And because he was also subject to the suffering of the mind, he showed it when, after waters were returned to the earth and the prophets and priests of idols were slain, he fled through the deserts, terrified by the threats of a single woman. But how great it is to pray for the sick before the Lord, and to call them back to health as confessing their sins, he shows by adding:
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Elijah — Whose God is Jehovah. (1.) “The Tishbite,” the “Elias” of the New Testament, is suddenly introduced to our notice in 1 Kings 17:1 as delivering a message from the Lord to Ahab. There is mention made…
Prayer — Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or…
Fruits · Require: Rain from heaven — Require: Rain from heaven
Intercession · OF MAN WITH GOD — OF MAN WITH GOD
Meteorology And Celestial Phenomena · 9:7;26:7,8,11;27:20,21;28:24-27;29:19;36:27-33;37:6-22;38:8-11,22,24-29,31-35,37; — 9:7;26:7,8,11;27:20,21;28:24-27;29:19;36:27-33;37:6-22;38:8-11,22,24-29,31-35,37;
Miracles Wrought Through Servants Of God · Elijah: Rain brought — Elijah: Rain brought
Prayer, Answers To · Exemplified: Elijah — Exemplified: Elijah
Rain · Withheld, in answer to prayer — Withheld, in answer to prayer
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
James 5:16-18
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
16 Confitemini invicem peccata vestra, et orate invicem alii pro aliis, ut salvemini: multum valet precatio justi efficax.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
17 Elias homo erat passionibus similiter obnoxius ut nos; et precatione precatus est, ne plueret; et non pluit super terram annos tres et sex menses.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth h…
Elijah . . . prayed: See 1 Kgs 17:1; 18:41-46. • Three and a half years (see 1 Kgs 18:1; Luke 4:25) is a round figure, half of seven, which symbolizes a period of judgment (cp. Dan 12:7; Rev 11:2).
