| Deuteronomy 32:2
| Let my doctrine gather as the rain, let my speech distil as the dew, as a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass.
| Gather, as rain does from vapours; (Menochius) so let the sum of what I have taught you be collected into this short canticle, and penetrate your hearts. (Haydock) --- Chaldean, "may my discourse be as delightful as the rain." Septuagint, "may my apophthegm (or sententious discourse, Calmet) be expected with earnestness, like rain," when the soil is thirsty. (Haydock) --- Preachers are compared to clouds, and their speech to rain, Isaias 60:8., and Ecclesiasticus 39:4. --- Drops. Some explain this and the former term in the original, of "a stormy and vehement shower," while others attach this idea only to the last part of the sentence. (Calmet) --- The lawgiver wishes to engage the hearts of his audience by mildness, though he is forced also to thunder, in order to rouse their attention, ver. 15. (Haydock) --- Sound doctrine produces much fruit in good dispositions, as rain causeth the seed to push forth which has been sown in an excellent soil. (Worthington)
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