Amos 4:7-8

Drought.

And I also have withholden the winter-rain from you, whenthere were &c.. The Heb. is not mâṭâr, but géshem, i.e. a burst of rain: the heavy rains of winter, which continue as a rule from the end of October to the end of February and are then followed by the -latter rain," or showers of March and April, which refresh and advance the ripening ears (see on Joel 2:23), had ceased prematurely; the crops were consequently deficient in fulness and strength, and the harvest (which comes in May) was seriously damaged. Something of the same sort happened in the winter of 1895; there had been hardly any rain since the Christmas of 1894, and in a report, dated Feb. 16, it was stated that unless rain fell shortly there would be great deficiency of water, as no houses had their cisterns full (G. A. Smith, p. 161). Géshem, though a general term for an abundant rain (as 1Ki 17:14; 1 Kings 18:41; 1 Kings 18:44-45), is used specially of the heavy rains of winter in Song of Solomon 2:11; comp. Leviticus 26:4; Ezekiel 34:26; Joel 2:23 (see note).

I caused it to rain&c. would cause it to rain … would be rained upon … would wither. The tenses, both here and to the end of the verse, are frequentative, indicating what had happened repeatedly.

piece i.e. plot of land, or portion belonging to a particular proprietor (Ruth 2:3; Ruth 4:3; 2 Samuel 14:30). The same partial character of the rain-fall is still sometimes observable in Palestine.