upon them as rain—before this particular rainfall—in utter despair. There are thus two senses of “before”: one relating to rainfall in general, and another relating to that particular rainfall not having occurred before that time. Before it fell, they therefore experienced two kinds of despair: despair because it was nowhere to be seen, and despair because it was delayed beyond its expected time.

The first “before” is a temporal adverb qualifying their despair, while the second qualifies the rain’s arrival and being sent down. The verse thus contains two adverbials governed by two distinct actions: the sending down of rain and the falling into despair. One adverbial relates to despair, and the other to the rain’s descent.

An illustration of this is what you would say if you were accustomed to receiving a gift from someone, but it was delayed beyond its usual time and he then brought it to you: “I had despaired.”