Dew names moisture in the ordinary scene, while poetic comparisons receive their meaning from what is compared. In the wilderness, dew lies around the camp before its evaporation reveals manna; the account distinguishes the two.
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Full entry for טַל (H2919) · Open the biblical lexicon
Dew names moisture in the ordinary scene, while poetic comparisons receive their meaning from what is compared. In the wilderness, dew lies around the camp before its evaporation reveals manna; the account distinguishes the two.
The BSB source-word alignment has 31 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include dew (7), of dew (4), with dew (4), the dew (3), like dew (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 27:28. Its strongest book concentrations include Judges (4), Deuteronomy (3), Hosea (3), Isaiah (3).
Dew names moisture in the ordinary scene, while poetic comparisons receive their meaning from what is compared. In the wilderness, dew lies around the camp before its evaporation reveals manna; the account distinguishes the two. Moses compares his teaching with dew, and Hosea presents the Lord as dew to Israel within a promise of healing apostasy and renewed growth.
Yet Hosea also compares unreliable loyalty with dew that disappears early. The same image therefore cannot supply one fixed spiritual meaning wherever it occurs. Elijah's announcement of a particular drought belongs to its narrated confrontation, not a rule for blaming people whenever rain fails. Read the physical event, the speaker and the stated comparison together.
Refreshment, transience and withheld moisture can each serve the passage without making present weather a private verdict about someone's faith or conduct.
Literal wilderness moisture, refreshing teaching, Israel's restoration, vanishing loyalty and a particular drought use dew differently. The stated comparison or narrated event determines what the image contributes.
That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.
Dew surrounds the camp before its evaporation reveals the fine material called manna, preserving the distinction between moisture and the supplied food.
Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.
Moses compares teaching and speech with rain and dew, allowing the announced poetic comparison rather than an independent weather prediction to guide reading.
I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.
The Lord's promise to be like dew to Israel follows healing apostasy and freely loving the people, giving the growth image its restoration setting.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Dew as gentle, life-sustaining moisture; metaphor for divine blessing and refreshment in arid contexts
Dew as gentle, life-sustaining moisture; metaphor for divine blessing and refreshment in arid contexts
dew (as covering vegetation) BDB: night-mist Usage: dew.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 31 lexical occurrence verses.
טַל is built from this root:
It symbolizes life-giving influence originating from God rather than human effort.Hosea 14:4-8
Symbol of life-giving renewal.Micah 5:6-9
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
An image can refresh one passage and expose weakness in another. Exodus distinguishes dew from the manna that appears after the moisture lifts. Deuteronomy's teaching comparison invites attention to speech that reaches its hearers, while Hosea's restoration promise names the Lord as dew for Israel's renewed growth. Hosea's earlier use reverses the emphasis: the people's loyalty is like dew that soon disappears.
The word alone cannot decide which contribution a reader should carry forward. Elijah's drought announcement must likewise remain a specific narrated word rather than a template for predicting contemporary weather or accusing sufferers. Teach what the passage actually compares, promises or reports. Offer the restoration image with its named subject and setting, preserve the warning about unreliable loyalty where it is stated, and leave private causes of current drought or distress unassigned.
Hos.14.5
The licensed Hebrew range names dew. The passages supply literal scenes and several poetic uses, including refreshment and disappearance. A repeated physical image does not require every comparison to have the same meaning; the compared subject and sentence's contrast remain decisive.
James 5:17-18 explicitly recalls Elijah's prayer and the period without rain before renewed rain and fruit. That later reference connects to the narrated drought rather than establishing a promise that every person's prayer controls weather. Retain the particular testimony alongside the differing Hebrew dew comparisons, without assigning present drought to a community's guilt or treating difficult conditions as evidence that prayer was defective.