For the destruction of the land, because there came no rain upon the earth, the husbandman were confounded, they covered their heads.
בַּעֲב֤וּר הָאֲדָמָה֙ חַ֔תָּה כִּ֛י לֹא־הָיָ֥ה גֶ֖שֶׁם בָּאָ֑רֶץ בֹּ֥שׁוּ אִכָּרִ֖ים חָפ֥וּ רֹאשָֽׁם׃
2 Church Fathers comment on this verse
The farmers bear the shame. It is only natural. What causes their shame, I ask? Was it their wrongdoing? Was it their lack of diligence? No, it was the result of a divine purpose. Why do they feel ashamed? Because they are accountable for their own transgressions. Shame serves as a consequence for those who err; it is, in fact, the very punishment itself.
Judah mourned, her gates lay desolate upon the ground, and the lament of Jerusalem rose high. The elders sent the youth to seek water; they arrived at the wells only to find them dry, returning with their containers empty, filled with shame and disheartened, covering their heads due to the barrenness of the land, for no rain had fallen upon it. The farmers, bewildered, also hid their faces. In a time of drought, when the people endure a famine of hearing and teaching the Word of God, Judah, which once proudly proclaimed its faith in the Lord, now weeps, and its gates are thrown open or lie in ruin, representing the senses through which the soul finds nourishment. The surroundings are cloaked in darkness, and in Jerusalem, chaos reigns rather than wisdom or the Word of teaching.
The elders, who ought to have sought nourishment themselves, dispatch the younger ones, lacking in the wisdom that comes with age. These youth go to the wells, discovering no water—akin to the patriarchs before them. They return empty, not due to a lack of water, but because they could not locate it. Troubled and dismayed, they cover their heads, unable to converse with the apostle, while we, with unveiled faces, behold the Lord's glory (2 Cor. 3:18). The land has become desolate and its produce scant, leading us to understand that no rain fell upon it, as it was declared that the clouds be withheld from pouring down (Isaiah 5). The farmers, referred to as “God's laborers” (1 Cor. 3:3) and “God's stewards,” bow their heads in distress, cognizant that their efforts are in vain without divine grace and assistance.
Passages read together with this verse.
THEOSIS