Job 37:6 - Exposition

For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth . The phenomenon of snow is always full of marvel to an Oriental. It comes before him so seldom; it is in itself so strange; it involves things so inexplicable as the sudden solidification of a liquid, crystallization, a marked expansion of bulk, and the sudden assumption by what was colourless of a definite and dazzling colour. In Arabia and the countries bordering on Palestine snow very seldom falls; but in Palestine itself the mountain ranges of Lebanon and Hermon are never without it; and in the region occupied by Job and his friends then is reason to believe that ice and snow were not altogether infrequent (see Job 6:16 , and the comment ad loc ). Likewise to the small rain ; or, to the light shower of rain— "the spring rain," as the Chaldee paraphrast explains it. And to the great rain of his strength; or, "the heavy winter rain," according to the same authority. "The former and the latter rain"—the rain of winter, and the rain of spring—are often mentioned by the sacred writers (see Deuteronomy 11:14 ; Jeremiah 5:24 ; Hosea 6:3 ; Joel 2:23 ; Zechariah 10:1 ; James 5:7 ). God gave both, ordinarily, in due course.