For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the gentle rain, ‘Pour out a mighty downpour.’
Parallel translations
- WEB For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth;’ likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain.
- KJV For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.
- NKJV For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’; Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength.
- NASB “For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ And to the downpour and the rain, ‘Be strong.’
- NLT “He directs the snow to fall on the earth and tells the rain to pour down.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God commands the snow and rain to fall on the earth, including His mighty downpours. Even snow and rain obey His word.
Overview
Elihu notes that God simply speaks and the snow and rain obey, falling at His command. This underscores that all weather is governed by God's sovereign word, not by chance (Ps. 147:15-18). The verse displays the same powerful word by which God created and now sustains all things, the word made flesh in Christ who upholds the universe (Col. 1:16-17).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Job 38:22Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail,
- Job 36:27For He draws up drops of water which distill the rain from the mist,
- Ps 147:16–18He spreads the snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;
- Ezek 13:13Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: In My wrath I will release a windstorm, and in My anger torrents of rain and hail will fall with destructive fury.
- Ezek 13:11tell those whitewashing the wall that it will fall. Rain will come in torrents, I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will burst forth.
- Gen 7:10–12And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth.
- Ps 148:8lightning and hail, snow and clouds, powerful wind fulfilling His word,
- Ezra 10:9So within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled in Jerusalem, and on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people sat in the square at the house of God, trembling regarding this matter and because of the heavy rain.
- Ezra 10:13But there are many people here, and it is the rainy season. We are not able to stay out in the open. Nor is this the work of one or two days, for we have transgressed greatly in this matter.
- Prov 28:3A destitute leader who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no food.
- Amos 9:6He builds His upper rooms in the heavens and founds His vault upon the earth. He summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth. The LORD is His name.
- Matt 7:25–27The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 37:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.