Proverbia 147:17

Nova Vulgata

Mittit crystallum suam sicut buccellas; ante faciem frigoris eius quis sustinebit?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

casteth: Psalms 78:47, Psalms 78:48, Exodus 9:23-25, Joshua 10:11, Job 38:22, Job 38:23

who can stand: Job 38:29, Job 38:30

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He casteth forth his ice like morsels,.... Divided like morsels, as the Targum; cut into pieces, like morsels of bread. This seems to have respect to hail stones, which sometimes fall like pieces of ice, and are very prejudicial to the fruits of the earth: this was one of the ten plagues of Egypt; and whereby also many of the Canaanites were destroyed in the times of Joshua, Exodus 9:23; and there is an exceeding great storm of hail yet to come, very dreadful; see Revelation 16:21. This is expressive of the wrath, vengeance, and judgments of God upon men, by which he is known in various perfections of his nature; as his power, justice, and holiness, for which he is celebrated, Isaiah 30:30;

who can stand before his cold? which he has purposed and promised shall be; for he has said, that "cold and heat [shall not] cease, [as long as] the earth remains"; and which he appoints and orders to be, for "by the breath of God frost is given", Genesis 8:22; and this is sometimes and in some places so very vehement, that it is intolerable; men are obliged to keep within doors, to make them fires, and put on more clothes; and the "hands" of every man are sealed up from business; even "the beasts go into [their] dens, [and] remain in their places", or get what shelter they can; see Job 37:7. And if there is no standing before his cold, who can stand before the heat of his anger, or his furious wrath and indignation, when it is poured out like fire? see Psalms 76:7.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He casteth forth his ice like morsels - The word rendered morsels means properly a bit, a crumb, as of bread, Genesis 18:5; Judges 19:5. The allusion here would seem to be to hail, which God sends upon the earth as easily as one scatters crumbs of bread from the hand.

Who can stand before his cold? - Or, hail. The word is the same, except in pointing, as the preceding word rendered ice. The idea is that no one can stand before the peltings of the hail, when God sends it forth, or scatters it upon the earth.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 147:17. He casteth forth his ice — קרחו korcho, (probably hailstones,) like crumbs.

Who can stand before his cold? — At particular times the cold in the east is so very intense as to kill man and beast. Jacobus de Vitriaco, one of the writers in the Gesta Dei per Francos, says, that in an expedition in which he was engaged against Mount Tabor, on the 24th of December, the cold was so intense that many of the poor people, and the beasts of burden, died by it. And Albertus Aquensis, another of these writers, speaking of the cold in Judea, says, that thirty of the people who attended Baldwin I. in the mountainous districts near the Dead Sea, were killed by it; and that in that expedition they had to contend with horrible hail and ice, with unheard-of snow and rain. From this we find that the winters are often very severe in Judea; and in such cases as the above, we may well call out, "Who can stand against his cold!"