Dew

DEW. Dews in Palestine are very plentiful. Hushai compares an army falling upon the enemy to the Dew descending on 2 Sam. xvii. 12.the ground. It was as it were a small shower of rain, which fell every morning. Gideon filled a bason with the Dew which fell by Judg. vi. 38. Cant. v. 2.night upon a fleece of wool. The Spouse in the Canticles says, that his hair was moisten’d with the Dew. Isaac blessing Jacob, wished him the Dew of heaven which fattens Gen. xxvii. 28.the fields. In these warm Countries, and in places where it rains but seldom, the night-dews supply in some sort the want of rain. The wise man says, that the clouds are formed of the Dew; Nubes rore concrescunt. Prov. iii. 20.Or rather, according to the Hebrew, the clouds produce or distill the Dew. And in another place, that the good humour of the Prince is like the Dew upon the grass: Sicut ros super herbam, ita hilaritas ejus. Isaiah speaks of rain as if it were a Dew, because in Isa. xviii. 4.reality it was almost as copious; like a cloud of Dew in the heat of Harvest. The same Prophet says, that the Dew which God Isa. xxvi. 19. טל אורות טלךcauses to fall upon the people, is a bright Dew, ros lucis, ros tuus: Thy Dew is a Dew which revives, enlightens, and restores liberty to thy captives. He speaks of the captivity of Babylon, as of a state of death. He compares his captive people to withered and dying grass. The Dew refreshes and strengthens it. In like manner, God’s visitation of his people will recover them in some sort to life and light. Others translate the Hebrew, Thy Dew is as the Dew of herbs, instead of a Dew of light and dawn. This comparison of God’s visitation to the Dew is remarkable in several places of the Scripture. See Hosea vi. 4. xiii. 1. xiv. 6. Micah v. 7.

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