Psalms 147:16

New King James Version

He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;

Parallel Translations

English Standard Version
He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.

Geneva Bible (1587)
He giueth snowe like wooll, and scattereth the hoare frost like ashes.

Christian Standard Bible®
He spreads snow like wool;he scatters frost like ashes;

Hebrew Names Version
He gives snow like wool, And scatters frost like ashes.

Easy-to-Read Version
He makes the snow fall until the ground is as white as wool. He makes sleet blow through the air like dust.

Amplified Bible
He gives [to the earth] snow like [a blanket of] wool; He scatters the frost like ashes.

American Standard Version
He giveth snow like wool; He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes.

Contemporary English Version
He covers the ground with snow like a blanket of wool, and he scatters frost like ashes on the ground.

Complete Jewish Bible
Thus he gives snow like wool, scatters hoarfrost like ashes,

JPS Old Testament (1917)
He giveth snow like wool; He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes.

King James Version (1611)
He giueth snow like wooll: he scattereth the hoare frost like ashes.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
He gives snow like wool: he scatters the mist like ashes.

English Revised Version
He giveth snow like wool; he scattereth the hoar frost like ashes.

Berean Standard Bible
He spreads the snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;

Lexham English Bible
He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes;

Literal Translation
He gives snow like wool; He scatters the white frost like ashes;

New Century Version
He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.

New English Translation
He sends the snow that is white like wool; he spreads the frost that is white like ashes.

New Living Translation
He sends the snow like white wool; he scatters frost upon the ground like ashes.

New Life Bible
He gives snow like wool. He spreads ice like ashes.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Who giveth snow like wool, Hoar-frost - like ashes, he scattereth:

Douay-Rheims Bible
(147-5) Who giveth snow like wool: scattereth mists like ashes.

George Lamsa Translation
He gives snow like wool; he scatters the hoarfrost like ashes.

Good News Translation
He spreads snow like a blanket and scatters frost like dust.

New American Standard Bible
He showers snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes.

King James Version
He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
He geueth snowe [so whyte] as wooll: he scattereth the hoare frost like asshes.

New Revised Standard
He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.

Darby Translation
He giveth snow like wool, scattereth the hoar frost like ashes;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Which yyueth snow as wolle; spredith abrood a cloude as aische.

Young's Literal Translation
Who is giving snow like wool, Hoar-frost as ashes He scattereth.

World English Bible
He gives snow like wool, And scatters frost like ashes.

Revised Standard Version
He gives snow like wool; he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.

Update Bible Version
He gives snow like wool; He scatters the hoar-frost like ashes.

Webster's Bible Translation
He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes.

Bible in Basic English
He gives snow like wool; he sends out ice-drops like dust.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
He geueth snowe like woll, & scatereth ye horefrost like ashes.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes.

Legacy Standard Bible
The One who gives snow like wool;He scatters the frost like ashes,

Contextual Overview

¹² Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! ¹³ For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your children within you. ¹⁴ He makes peace in your borders, And fills you with the finest wheat. ¹⁵ He sends out His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly. ¹⁶ He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes; ¹⁷ He casts out His hail like morsels; Who can stand before His cold? ¹⁸ He sends out His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow. ¹⁹ He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. ²⁰ He has not dealt thus with any nation; And as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise the LORD!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

giveth: Psalms 148:8, Job 37:6, Isaiah 55:10

scattereth: Job 37:9, Job 37:10, Job 38:29

Reciprocal: Exodus 16:14 - the hoar frost

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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. And it is like wool for its usefulness to the earth; for as wool covers the sheep, and clothes made of it cover men, and keep them warm; so snow filling upon the earth covers it and keeps it warm, and secures the wheat and other fruits of the earth from the injuries of the cold: and this lies among the treasures of the Lord, and he brings it out from thence, and commands it to be on the earth; and it is an useful gift of his providence, for which his name is to be praised; see Job 37:6. The Jews have a saying, as Arama observes, that one day of snow is better than five of rain. In the third year of Valens and Valentinianus, with the Atrebates (a people in the Netherlands), real wool fell from the clouds, mixed with rain y. Several blessings of grace are signified by this figure; as pardon of sin, the justifying righteousness of Christ, and the efficacy of the word of God, Psalms 51:7;

he scattereth the hoar frost like ashes; which is the dew congealed by the intense cold of the air in the night season z: this for its colour looks like ashes, and for its infinite number of particles may be compared to them; which are spread here and there, and everywhere; over gardens, fields, lands, herbs, plants, and trees, as if they were strewed with ashes. And to hot ashes it may be compared, because of its burning nature, shrivelling up leaves, herbs, and plants, as if burnt; hence called "pruina" in the Latin tongue a. The manna is compared to this for its smallness, Exodus 16:14; which was typical of Christ, the hidden manna, and of the ministry of the Gospel; little, mean, and contemptible, in the eyes of carnal men; torturing and tormenting to them, as the fire that came out of the mouths of the witnesses; and is the savour of death unto death to some, while it ii the savour of life unto life to others.

t Eustathius in Dionys. Perieget. p. 91. u Epigram. l. 4. Ep. 3. w Aristoph. Nubes, p. 146. x Nat. Hist. l. 17. c. 2. y Orosii Hist. l. 7. c. 32. p. 131. z lsidor. Origin. l. 13. c. 10. a "Frigora nec tantum cana concreta pruina", Virgil. Georgic. l. 2. v. 376.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He giveth snow like wool - He covers the earth with snow, so that it seems to have a clothing of wool. Compare the notes at Job 37:6 : “For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth.”

He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes - As if ashes were strewed over the earth; or, as easily as one strews ashes.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 147:16. He giveth snow like wool — Falling down in large flakes; and in this state nothing in nature has a nearer resemblance to fine white wool.

Scattereth the hoar frost like ashes. — Spreading it over the whole face of nature.