Midrash for Job 5:11

How did the earth drink?³⁸Before there was rain, as described in Genesis 2:6. Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Simon, and the Rabbis, Rabbi Yehuda says: Like the Nile, which waters [the land] and then waters it again.³⁹It periodically overflows its banks, watering the surrounding land. Rabbi Simon said: It is like a box, like the Kavriel [River], whose [water] rises and is [then] absorbed into the ground.⁴⁰The water is present in the winter, and is absorbed into the earth in the summer, at which point crops are planted in the moist earth and are harvested before the river reappears the following winter (Midrash HaMevoar). The Rabbis say: It is like the Tevaha . Why is it called Tevaha? It is because it waters once every forty years,⁴¹One would naturally be astounded [toheh] that this was sufficient to water the land. and it is from it that the earth drank at the outset, as it is stated: “A mist went up from the earth [and watered the entire face of the ground]” (Genesis 2:6). But the Holy One blessed be He then instituted that the earth would drink only from above. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman [said] in the name of Rabbi Ḥanin of Tzippori, and some say Rabbi Ḥanin of Tzippori [said] in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman: For four reasons the Holy One blessed be He instituted that the earth would drink only from above: Due to violent people;⁴²Who would otherwise take all the water for themselves. in order to wash away the harmful dews; so the highlands will drink like the lowlands; and so everyone will lift their eyes heavenward, as it is stated: “[Who gives rain upon the earth… to set the lowly on high…” (Job 5:10–11).