1 Kings 8:35-36

When heaven is shut up. — Next, Solomon dwells on the plague of famine, from rain withheld, by which, in the striking language of the Law (Leviticus 26:19; Deuteronomy 28:23), “the heaven should be as brass, and the earth as iron,” and all vegetation perish from the parched land of Palestine, as now it seems actually to have failed in many places once fertile. In such plague he acknowledges the chastisement of God, sent to “teach Israel the right way,” and then to be withdrawn in mercy. The whole history of the famine in the days of Elijah is in all parts a striking commentary on this clause of the prayer.