The first two lines are parallel, having approximately the same meaning, and the last two are also in parallel lines and modify the verbs of the first two lines. A translator should determine whether a restructuring of the verse would make it easier to understand. See two different types of restructuring in Good News Translation and in the Contemporary English Version model given at the end of the comments on this verse.

May …: this comes as a wish, an effective way to begin a speech, especially one that is going to charge the accused party of evil conduct. The speaker promises that he will not be threatening or blustering, but he hopes to convince his hearers by means of a gentle and mild statement of facts. Where the equivalent of the English verb form for expressing a wish, “may,” is not natural or available in a language, a translator should find the most natural way of expressing a desire. Examples are “I want [or, wish] that my teaching will…” or “I pray that….”

Drop as rain … distil as the dew: Good News Translation “will fall” fails to express the poetic quality of the Hebrew drop. Contemporary English Version softens the effect by combining lines b and c of the verse as follows:

• My words will be like gentle rain
on tender young plants.

For the figure of rain dropping, see 33.28; Job 29.22-23. As for dew, the verb distil in English is a correct rendering of the Hebrew, but not natural; to distill a liquid is to vaporize it and then allow it to condense so as to remove impurities. People more naturally speak of dew “forming” or “condensing” (Good News Translation, New International Version), and in some languages the word for dew will be something like “water that clings.” And even though dew does not actually fall, as rain does, in some languages this will be the most natural way to speak of dew. The point of this figure of speech is the speaker’s hope that his audience will listen with sympathy to what he is about to say; see the New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh footnote: “(that is), may my words be received eagerly.”

Gentle rain … showers: these two have almost the same meaning; the Hebrew term for the first one appears only here in the Old Testament.

The tender grass … the herb: again, two nouns that are close in meaning. In these and similar instances the translator should not be too concerned to match the original text with two very similar terms in his or her language, especially if one of the two happens to be a very specialized term not used by the majority of speakers. Good News Translation has a good model: “young plants … tender grass.”

The Contemporary English Version translation of the whole verse is a good model:

• Israel, I will teach you.
My words will be like gentle rain
on tender young plants,
or like dew on the grass.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .