He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
He giveth snow like wool; He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes.
Who is giving snow like wool, Hoar-frost as ashes He scattereth.
He giveth snow like wool, scattereth the hoar frost like ashes;
Psalms — The canon's longest book — 150 Psalms edited into five doxology-bookended books, composed across a millennium, attributed to David, Asaph, Korah's sons, Moses, Solomon, Heman, Ethan, and anonymous voices. A ''Torah of David''; the Bible's longest continuous liturgical-devotional corpus.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
Voices4
Who gives snow like wool, who scatters mist like ashes. He sends his crystal like morsels. See how great is the difficulty, how obscure are the things that are said. Before the face of his cold, who shall stand? Whose? Nothing is said. Let us see, then, from the beginning what is said. And he fills you with the fat of the wheat: he sends forth his word to the earth, swiftly runs his word. Suddenly, what follows? Who gives snow like wool.
Jerome· Homily 57, on Psalm 147, 420patristic
He giveth snow like wool,.... For colour as white as wool; so the Targum and Kimchi: and for the manner of its falling, lightly and gently as a lock of wool; which for its thinness and fineness it also resembles. Hence the ancients used to call snow εριωδες υδωρ, "woolly water" (t); and Martial (u) gives it the name of "densum veilus aquarum", "a thick fleece of waters": so another poet (w) calls clouds flying fleeces of wool, to which they sometimes seem like; Pliny (x) calls it the from of the celestial waters.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
. Ver. 16. Here follow instances of the power of God upon the elements. He giveth snow like wool. As a gift he scatters the snow, which falls in flakes like fleecy wool. Snow falls softly, covers universally, and clothes warmly, even as wool covers the sheep. The most evident resemblance lies in the whiteness of the two substances; but many other likenesses are to be seen by the observant eye. It is wise to see God in winter and in distress as well as in summer and prosperity.
God's Word, as a swift messenger, executes His purpose, for with Him to command is to perform (Ge 1:3; Ps 33:9), and He brings about the wonders of providence as easily as men cast crumbs.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Isaiah 55:10For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,
leads to
As it is written: “He has scattered abroad His gifts to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”
Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.
Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will…
I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season—showers of blessing.
Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.
Through
Psalms 148:8lightning and hail, snow and clouds, powerful wind fulfilling His word,
leads to
He sends forth His command to the earth; His word runs swiftly.
Through
Job 38:29From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,
leads to
He spreads the snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;
The whole web at once: see the Arc.
The verses this one reaches7
For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the gentle rain, ‘Pour out a mighty downpour.’
From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,
By the breath of God the ice is formed and the watery expanses are frozen.
lightning and hail, snow and clouds, powerful wind fulfilling His word,
For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,
The tempest comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds.
When the layer of dew had evaporated, there were thin flakes on the desert floor, as fine as frost on the ground.
