(60) For the waters are for those who dwell on the earth; for they are nourishment for the earth from the Most High who is in heaven: therefore there is a measure for the rain, and the angels take it in charge.

(45) For in the seven years of the famine it had not overflowed and had irrigated only a few places on the banks of the river, but now it overflowed and the Egyptians sowed the land, and it bore much corn that year.

(24) Arid they digged a well and they found living water.

(5) Every single drop of that rain became as big as a bowl, and the water stood the height of a man over the whole of this earth; and the noxious creatures on the earth being all killed by the rain, went into the holes of the earth.

(13) And ten nights and days rain was produced by him in that manner, and the poison and venom of the noxious creatures which were in the earth were, all mixed up in the water, and the water became quite salt, because there remained in the earth some of those germs which noxious creatures ever collect.

(45) And the years of the famine were accomplished, and Joseph gave to the people in the land seed and food that they might sow (the land) fn the eighth year, for the river had overflowed all the land of Egypt.

(20) Accordingly such food, in order to clear understanding, is to be rejected. Wherefore also the Egyptians, in the purifications practised among them, do not allow the priests to feed on flesh; but they use chickens, as lightest; and they do not touch fish, on account of certain fables, but especially on account of such food making the flesh flabby. But now terrestrial animals and birds breathe the same air as our vital spirits, being possessed of a vital principle cognate with the air. But it is said that fishes do not breathe this air, but that which was mixed with the water at the instant of its first creation, as well as with the rest of the elements, which is also a sign of the permanence of matter.

(6) This god) giveth thee to join him on the firmament, when he raiseth water on the mountains in order to make growth come forth on the mountains, and all growth spring out of the earth; he brings forth all products on water and on land

(2) All these, through growth, or the body which is formed, mingle again with the rivers, for the body which is formed and the growth are both one.

(2) Of those five fires one consumes both water and food, as that which is in the bodies of men; one consumes water and consumes no food, as that which is in plants, which live and grow through water; one consumes food and consumes no water, as that which they keep in use in the world, and likewise the fire of Vâhrâm; one consumes no water and no food, as the fire Vâzist.

(69) And through it the earth was founded upon the water, And from the secret recesses of the mountains come beautiful waters, From the creation of the world and unto eternity.

(18) But now is it written here, God sprach (said), Let the earth bring forth grass, and herbs, and fruitful trees. Observe here:

(78) Timaeus: Thereupon they arranged the irrigation on some such plan as this—a plan which we shall perceive more easily when we have first agreed upon the following postulates. All bodies composed of smaller particles shut in the larger, but those composed of larger particles cannot shut in the smaller; and fire, because of all the elements it has the smallest particles, passes through water and earth and air and all things composed thereof, and nothing can shut it in. We must conceive that the same law holds good of the action of our belly. Whenever foods and drinks flow into it

(53) Now the other birth or geniture is the water, which taketh its original in the body of nature. Observe:

(25) If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

(83) The body taketh its food from the seed of the seven spirits of God in the body of the great deep, which [body] is fire, air, water and earth.

(10) The body hungereth and thirsteth after the father of nature, viz. the stars and the elements, and that father feedeth and nourisheth the body.

(82) For in those places where the sweet water in the standing wheel of God was chief or predominant, there much earthly, comprehensible or palpable water came to be.

(4) But what is the solid food and what the liquid? For the Good Wisdom is celebrated as at once bestowing and providing these. I suppose then, that the solid food is suggestive of the intellectual and abiding perfection and sameness, within which, things Divine are participated as a stable, and strong, and unifying, and indivisible knowledge, by those contemplating organs of sense, by which the most Divine Paul, after partaking of wisdom, imparts his really solid nourishment; but that the liquid is suggestive of the stream, at once flowing through and to all; eager to advance, and further conducting those who are properly nourished as to goodness, through things variegated and many and divided, to the simple and invariable knowledge of God. Wherefore the divine and spiritually perceived Oracles are likened to dew, and water, and to milk, and wine, and honey; on account of their life-producing power, as in water; and growth-giving, as in milk; and reviving, as in wine; and both purifying and preserving, as in honey. For these things, the Divine Wisdom gives to those approaching it, and furnishes and fills to overflowing, a stream of ungrudging and unfailing good cheer. This, then, is the veritable good cheer; and, on this account, it is celebrated, as at once life-giving and nourishing and perfecting.