Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Drought and heat consume the snow-waters - The public cisterns or large tanks which had been filled with water by the melting of the snow on the mountains, and which water was stored for the irrigation of their lands, had been entirely exhausted by the intensity of the heat, and the long continuance of drought.
So doth the grave those which have sinned - For this whole paragraph we have only two words in the original; viz., שאול חטאו sheol chatau, "the pit, they have sinned;" which Mr. Good translates: - "They fall to their lowest depth." I believe the meaning to be, - even the deepest tanks, which held most water, and retained it longest, had become exhausted; so that expectation and succor were cut off from this as well as from every other quarter. I have elsewhere shown that שאול sheol signifies, not only hell and the grave, but any deep pit; and, also, that חטא chata signifies to miss the mark. Mr. Good, properly aware of these acceptations of the original words, has translated as above; and it is the only ground on which any consistent meaning can be given to the original.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
Arabian image; melted snow, as contrasted with the living fountain, quickly dries up in the sunburnt sand, not leaving a trace behind (Job 6:16-18). The Hebrew is terse and elliptical to express the swift and utter destruction of the godless; (so) "the grave--they have sinned!"
John Gill Bible Commentary
Drought and heat consume the snow waters,.... Melt the snow into water, and dry up that, which is done easily, quickly, and suddenly:
so doth the grave those which have sinned; all have sinned, but some are more notorious sinners than others, as those here meant; and all die and are laid in the grave, and are consumed; hence the grave is called the pit of corruption and destruction, because bodies are corrupted and destroyed in it, and which is the case of all, both good and bad men; but the metaphor here used to express it by, of the consumption of snow water by drought and heat, denotes either that the death of these persons is sudden and violent, and in such a manner are brought to the grave, consumed there; that they die a sudden death, and before their time, and do not live out half the days, which, according to the course of nature, they might have lived, or it was expected by them and others they would; whereas they are "snatched away", as the word signifies, as suddenly and violently as snow waters are by the drought and heat; or else that their death is quick, quiet, and easy, as snow is quickly dissolved, and the water as soon and as easily dried up by the drought and heat; they do not lie long under torturing diseases, but are at once taken away, and scarce feel any pain; they die in their full strength, wholly at ease and quiet; which sense well answers Job's scope and design, see Job 21:23. Some render the words, "in the drought and heat they rob, and in the snow waters" (z); that is, they rob at all times and seasons of the year, summer and winter; and this is their constant trade and employ; they are always at it, let the weather be what it will: and "they sin unto the grave", or "hell" (a); they continue in their wicked course of life as long as they live, until they are brought to the grave; they live and die in sin.
(z) "deficit"; so some in Simeon, Bar Tzemach. (a) "ad infernum usque peccarunt", Schmidt; "usque ad sepulchrum", Mercerus; some in Drusius.