The word - that came - concerning the dearth - This discourse is supposed to have been delivered, after the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Concerning the dearth. We have no historic record of any dearth that may fall in with the time of this prophecy, and perhaps it does not refer to any particular dearth: but this was a calamity to which Judea was very liable. They had ordinarily very dry summers, for scarcely any rain fell from April to the middle of October; and during much of this time, the rivers were generally either very low or entirely dry. They kept the rain of the winter in tanks and reservoirs; and if little fell in winter, a dearth was unavoidable. See an account of a dearth in the time of Elijah, 1 Kings 18:5, through which almost all the cattle were lost.

A.M.

3399. B.C.

605. The word. This discourse is supposed to have been delivered after the fourth year of Jehoiakim. The Hebrew Batzaroth, rendered dearth, signifies restraint, that is, when the heaven is shut up that there is no rain; which Houbigant thinks happened early in the reign of Zedekiah.

the dearth. Heb. the words of the dearth, or restraints.

Jeremiah 17:8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes...

Question of the Contemplative Life
I. Is the Contemplative Life wholly confined to the Intellect, or does the Will enter into it? S. Thomas, On the Beatific Vision, I., xii. 7 ad 3m II. Do the Moral Virtues pertain to the Contemplative Life? S. Augustine, Of the City of God, xix. 19 III. Does the Contemplative Life comprise many Acts? S. Augustine, Of the Perfection of Human Righteousness, viii. 18 " Ep., cxxx. ad probam IV. Does the Contemplative Life consist solely in the Contemplation of God, or in the Consideration …
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life