“Both autumn and spring rains”
He sends you showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. (Joel 2:23 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A generic mention of rain and good weather.
The cultural key
The blessing hinges on the agricultural calendar of the land, which had two crucial rainy seasons, not one. The 'autumn' or 'former' rains came in October and November, softening the sun-baked ground so the fields could be plowed and sown; without them, planting was impossible. The 'spring' or 'latter' rains came in March and April, filling out the grain and fruit just before harvest; without them, the crop withered on the stalk. The long dry summer between brought no rain at all. So to promise 'both autumn and spring rains, as before' is to promise the entire farming year secured from end to end, seed-time and harvest both, a full reversal of the locust-ravaged famine Joel has been describing. A modern reader hears generic 'rain'; a farmer in that land heard the two make-or-break gifts on which the whole year's food depended.
Recovered meaning
The land lived by two rainy seasons: the autumn rains that let the fields be planted and the spring rains that ripened the grain, with a rainless summer between. Promising both 'as before' pledges a whole year's harvest secured, reversing the famine.