It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them; and Yahweh’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you.
Weather events like thunder, rain, and droughts are direct punishments or rewards for human behavior.
Meteorology
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passages in this field
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The cited passage
“I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn’t rain withered.
What current science says
Weather follows natural patterns explained by meteorology. Rain happens when water evaporates, rises, cools, and condenses. Thunder is caused by lightning heating air rapidly. Droughts result from climate patterns. Weather can now be predicted scientifically.
What the text says
Deuteronomy 11:13-17 promises rain in its season as a reward for obedience and warns that God 'will shut up the heaven, that there be no rain' as punishment for disobedience, while Amos 4:7 describes God sending rain on one city and withholding it from another - treating weather as a direct response to human behavior.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.