Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God. They had keenly felt and deeply bewailed the unparalleled catastrophe which had befallen laud and cattle and inhabitants, and also themselves among the number.
The sons of Zion are the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the capital, in which was the national sanctuary for the worship of Jehovah. Not only are the inhabitants of Jerusalem included, but, as the capital often stood for the whole country, all the inhabitants of Judah are comprehended under the "children of Zion."
The ground of their gladness and joy in God is: For he hath given you the former rain moderately (margin, a teacher of righteousness, or for righteousness), and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
Omitting for the present the disputed word hammoreh, we have the great blessing which was so much needed. The blessing bestowed was twofold—negative in the destruction of the locusts and deliverance from their ravages; and positive in the plentiful rainfall, geshem, the great and beneficent fertilizer of the dried-up and desolated land.
But this abundant rain is more closely particularized as the early or October rain, moreh, which, falling at the seed-time in autumn, promoted the germination and growth of the seed just sown; and as the latter, or March rain, malqosh, which, bestowed in the spring season a short time before harvest, matured the crops.
The geshem, or shower, may be regarded here as the generic name, and of these the two species are the moreh and malqosh, from laqash, to be ripe or late, just explained.