Job 38:22

γ . He must have penetrated to the storehouses of snow and hail, and entered nature’s laboratory, where, like so many implements of war, they are produced in vast quantities; he must have found his way to the focal centre from which light divides itself and whence the east wind is dispersed over the earth, Job 38:22-24.

22. Treasures of the snow אצרות : a word applied frequently to the treasures of the temple, (1 Kings 7:51,) or to those of the royal house. 1 Kings 14:26; 1 Kings 15:18, etc. It is also employed for “magazines,” “treasuries,” or “storehouses;” but here poetically and figuratively for rich and precious treasures that God has laid up against a time of trouble, of which explanation is given in the following verse. Delitzsch finds in the word otseroth (treasures) a deeper meaning the final causes of these phenomena which God has created; the form of the question, the design of which is ethical, not scientific, being regulated according to the infancy of the perception of natural phenomena among the ancients. Cp. Psalms 135:7. These weapons of war (Job 38:23) come forth from the divine and unseen arsenal, displaying evidences of divine elaboration and skill. Seen under a microscope they present a beauty and a variety unsurpassed by objects either in the animal or vegetable kingdom. Produced in calm air, the snow builds itself into beautiful stellar shapes, each star possessing six rays. Sir John Herschel remarks, that the variety of forms affected by these delicate mechanisms is infinite; the beauty of their patterns incomparable.

The treasures of the hail Hail falls most commonly in the latter part of the spring, in very heavy storms, and the hail stones are of an enormous size, etc. RUSSELL, Hist, of Aleppo, 1:71. Of Palestine in general, Robinson says: Hail falls in the hill country in the rainy season more frequently than snow; but does not, in general, occasion much damage. Fine hail mingled with rain is common. Phys. Geog. of Holy Land, 265.