Job 37:6

For he saith to the snow, be thou [on] the earth,.... In the original it is, be thou earth: hence one of the Rabbins formed a notion, that the earth was created from snow under the throne of glory,

For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength. Be - more forcible than 'fall,' as Umbreit translates (Genesis 1:3).

By his powerful word and will the snow is made in the air, and falls upon the earth where and when he seeth fit. The great rain of his strength, i.e. those great storms or showers of rain which come with great force and irresistible violence.

Job 37:6 For he saith to the snow, Be thou [on] the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.Ver. 6. For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth] He commandeth it, and it is done; for together with his word there goeth forth a power. Dixisse Dei, est fecisse. Psalms 147:1-20, God giveth snow like wool. Many wonders there are in snow; as that it should be made in the lowest part of the air, and not above where it is coldest; that it should snow upon the earth, but never upon the sea, as Pliny saith; that snow should lie continually, not only upon the Alps, but upon Mount Aetna, where fire flames out; that no snow falleth in Egypt; but in Tartary, a hot country, sometimes it snoweth in the heat of summer; that it serves for a cover to preserve the earth’ s heat, though itself be cold; that being white, it should sometimes bring forth red worms, &c. Likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength] Not a drop of rain, whether it come leisurely or hastily, but falleth by a divine decree, Job 28:26, The Chaldee paraphrast understandeth here the summer and winter rains. God showeth his strength in a thing so weak and diffluent of itself, that thereby he may overturn and break in pieces the proudest of men’ s spirits; for whom also, if they repent not, he hath a more terrible rain, Psalms 11:6, overflowing with fire and brimstone, Ezekiel 38:22

(6) For he saith to the snow.—All the operations of nature obey the behest of God—the snow, the gentle showers, the drenching downpour. By means of these He sealeth up the hand of every man, obstructing and impeding their works and movements, so that all the men whom He has made may know it or know Him. This is the plain meaning, which the Authorised Version gives somewhat less clearly. Men may learn from these things that they and their works are under the control of God. They are not the entirely free agents they suppose.

Verse 6. For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth] SNOW is generally defined, "A well-known meteor, formed by the freezing of the vapours in the atmosphere." We may consider the formation of snow thus: - A cloud of vapours being condensed into drops, these drops, becoming too heavy to be suspended in the atmosphere, descend; and, meeting with a cold region of the air, they are frozen, each drop shooting into several points. These still continuing their descent, and meeting with some intermitting gales of a warmer air, are a little thawed, blunted, and again, by falling into colder air, frozen into clusters, or so entangled with each other as to fall down in what we call flakes. Snow differs from hail and hoar-frost in being crystallized: this appears on examining a flake of snow with a magnifying glass; when the whole of it will appear to be composed of fine spicula or points diverging like rays from a centre. I have often observed the particles of snow to be of a regular figure, for the most part beautiful stars of six points as clear and transparent as ice. On each of these points are other collateral points, set at the same angles as the main points themselves, though some are irregular, the points broken, and some are formed of the fragments of other regular stars. I have observed snow to fall sometimes entirely in the form of separate regular six-pointed stars, without either clusters or flakes, and each so large as to be the eighth of an inch in diameter. The lightness of snow is owing to the excess of its surface, when compared with the matter contained under it. Its whiteness is owing to the small particles into which it is divided: for take ice, opaque almost to blackness, and pound it fine, and it becomes as white as snow. The immediate cause of the formation of snow is not well understood: it has been attributed to electricity; and hail is supposed to owe its more compact form to a more intense electricity, which unites the particles of hail more closely than the moderate electricity does those of snow. But rain, snow, hail, frost, ice, c., have all one common origin they are formed out of the vapours which have been exhaled by heat from the surface of the waters. Snow, in northern countries, is an especial blessing of Providence; for, by covering the earth, it prevents corn and other vegetables from being destroyed by the intense cold of the air in the winter months; and especially preserves them from cold piercing winds. It is not a fact that it possesses in itself any fertilizing quality, such as nitrous salts, according to vulgar opinion: its whole use is covering the vegetables from intense cold, and thus preventing the natural heat of the earth from escaping, so that the intense cold cannot freeze the juices in the tender tubes of vegetables, which would rupture those tubes, and so destroy the plant. Mr.

6–10. Another wonder of God’s power, snow and frost.

For he saith to the snow - That is, the snow is produced by the command of God, and is a proof of his wisdom and greatness.

Strophe e. — The thunder-storm suggests to the mind of Elihu other meteorological phenomena of nature, such as snow, rains, wind, ice, and in general the reign of winter, which, by scaling up the