יוֹרֶה

From the study of Deuteronomy 11:14

Range of meaning

The 'early' or 'former' rain: the first autumn rains (roughly late October–November) after the rainless summer. Also spelled môreh (Joel 2:23; Ps 84:6). Its root is debated: either yārâ 'to throw, shoot' (rain 'thrown' down) or a related verb 'to water' (compare Hos 6:3, 'as the spring rain waters [yôreh] the earth').

Against the English

KJV 'first rain', WEB/ESV 'early rain', BSB/NIV 'autumn rain'. 'Autumn' tells a modern reader the season, while 'early' keeps the Hebrew sense of 'the first rain of the year'. YLT's 'sprinkling' is a guess from etymology and misleads.

Used elsewhere in the period

Paired with malqôš in Deut 11:14, Jer 5:24, Joel 2:23, and in Greek in James 5:7 ('the early and the late rain'). The Septuagint renders it πρόϊμος, 'early'. The Gezer Calendar (10th century BC) lays out the farming year that these rains frame: months of ingathering, sowing, late sowing, then barley and wheat harvest.

From the study of Jeremiah 5:24

Range of meaning

Technical farming terms for the two decisive rain periods of the Levantine year. Yôreh (also môreh) is the early or autumn rain. Malqôš is the late or spring rain. The pair is a fixed phrase for the whole rainy season that makes a harvest possible.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'former and latter' is accurate but opaque to modern readers. BSB/NASB 'autumn and spring' gives the timing. YLT's 'sprinkling and the gathered' is an etymological guess that obscures the meaning.

How it drifted

'Former and latter rain' was later taken up as a metaphor for outpourings of the Spirit, especially in some 19th–20th-century revival and Pentecostal movements, mostly drawing on Joel 2:23 and Hosea 6:3. That imagery does not apply here.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 11:14 ('the rain of your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain'); Jer 3:3 (the spring rain withheld as judgment); Joel 2:23; Hos 6:3; Zech 10:1; Jas 5:7. The Gezer Calendar (10th century BC) shows the same farming year: sowing after the autumn rains, then barley and wheat harvests.