Psalms Chapter 147 verse 16 Holy Bible
He giveth snow like wool; He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes.
read chapter 147 in ASV
He gives snow like wool; he sends out ice-drops like dust.
read chapter 147 in BBE
He giveth snow like wool, scattereth the hoar frost like ashes;
read chapter 147 in DARBY
He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
read chapter 147 in KJV
read chapter 147 in WBT
He gives snow like wool, And scatters frost like ashes.
read chapter 147 in WEB
Who is giving snow like wool, Hoar-frost as ashes He scattereth.
read chapter 147 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 16. - He giveth snow like wool. The loveliness of new-fallen snow has evidently been felt by the psalmist, to whom it has seemed like a spotless robe of whitest wool spread upon the earth. Snow, though rare in Palestine, does occasionally fall, and is said to "cover the streets of Jerusalem two winters out of three. It generally comes in small quantities; but there are sometimes very snowy winters." In 1879, for instance, snow lay in Jerusalem to a depth of seventeen inches (Geikic, 'The Holy Land and the Bible,' vol. 2. p. 58). He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes. The metaphor is less appropriate, and was selected, probably, on account of the near resemblance of the two words, kephor and kaepher.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(16) Like wool.--Both in whiteness and fleecy texture. "The snow falls in large flakes, equal in size to a walnut, and has more resemblance to locks of wool than it has in our country" (Niven, Biblical Antiq., p. 21)."A spice quam densum tacitarum vellus aquarum Defluat.MART., Ep. iv. 3.
