He sends the snow like white wool; he scatters frost upon the ground like ashes.
Parallel translations
- WEB He gives snow like wool, and scatters frost like ashes.
- KJV He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
- BSB He spreads the snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;
- NKJV He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;
- NASB He showers snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes.
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 gives snow like wool and scatters frost like ashes. He effortlessly commands even winter's elements.
Overview
With vivid images, the psalm shows God dispensing snow and frost as easily as one spreads wool or ashes. The forces of weather are simply His servants. This display of effortless power over nature invites awe and trust in the God who rules all things.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Job 37:6For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth;’ likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain.
- Job 38:29Out of whose womb came the ice? The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?
- Ps 148:8lightning and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling his word;
- Isa 55:10For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
- Job 37:9–10Out of its room comes the storm, and cold out of the north.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 147:16 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.