What is hoarfrost in the Bible?

Frozen water or snow. God demanded of Job, "Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?" It is answered in the Psalms: it is God who "casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?" Job 6:16; Job 38:29; Ps. 147:17.

How can we explain ice coming from a womb? A womb is a nice warm place. Each of us was formed in one! Can ice come from such a place? If so, how? How is the ice formed? Ice contains much less energy than liquid water. As energy leaves, things get colder. Water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit). But we must remember where the energy came from in order that it might leave. It came from the sun. God sent it to us. He sends it and he prepared the way for it to leave. All is in His control. All is for the display of His love and care for us. The ice has come from His "womb"! (See Strong’s 990. "Womb" may also be translated "bosom" or "body.")

Then, there is the hoary (white) frost of heaven that those of us who live in cold climates find on our car windows on some cold mornings. We may despise it as we clear it from our windows or shiver while we wait for the defroster to work. But it really is a blessing from the Lord, so that we do not freeze to death as energy leaves the earth. Frost is frozen drops of dew. God has gendered each of those cold crystals that sparkle in the sunshine! He has sent them for us to enjoy!

After sunset, the energy that came from the sun in the daytime leaves the earth by radiation. (Actually there is radiation away from the earth during the day as well, but the rate of supply from the sun overrides the amount leaving.) This produces what the weatherman calls "radiational cooling." As air cools it can hold less water and the saturation point is called the "dew point." When the dew point is reached in the cooling process the excess evaporated water held in the air condenses and forms dew. Dew will form on any item that is sufficiently cooler than the surrounding air, and it generally forms on the objects from which the sun’s energy had been stored and just released. These cool objects are the points of attraction for the dew formation. This is a very gentle and delicate process and is the way God "begets each drop of the dew."

Formation of Rain, Ice and Hoar Frost

"Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew?" (v.28). Where and when the rain falls may seem to us totally haphazard, but it is dependent simply on the will of our God and Father, who never makes a mistake. Similarly, frost is always sent by Him in perfect wisdom for every occasion (v.29). How it is possible for water to harden like stone is only explained by God's law in sending the cold (v.30). Who really understands this?

The Lord speaks to the earth with firm decision, and it submits to His working. Snow is said to be like wool, a covering to keep the earth warm when cold weather comes (v. 16). If frost is called for, He provides it, or hail, at a time when He sees fit. He can give such cold that no-one can stand before it (v. 17). Just as simply, He can by His Word melt snow and hail, the wind aiding this to cause waters to flow. Similarly, He can harden the hearts of those who harden themselves against Him, then can melt them down by His great love.

And to Him the whole earth is in subjection. His commandment throughout it is hastened by the swiftest messengers. He gives the snow and scatters the frost; solidifies the water with His cold, and melts it back again with a warmer wind. Nature is plastic in His hand everywhere and owns its God.

The quails appeared that evening, and covered the camp. In the morning the dew lay round about the host. When the dew disappeared, a small round thing, white like coriander seed, was seen on the ground — as small as the hoar frost. That was the bread. Manna, they called it — i.e., what is it? (16:15). It was something quite new. It was not the product of the soil, for the manna fell on the dew (Num. 11:9). It was not peculiar to that region — the wilderness of Sin — for it fell wherever the people were throughout their wilderness journey, and whilst they remained east of Jordan, only ceasing after they were west of that river (Joshua 5:12). It was bread which they knew not, neither did their fathers know, that God might make them know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live (Deut. 8:3).

(5) Jehovah speaks next of the phenomena of snow and rain, of frost and dew, with their effects upon the earth and man. Here again man's ignorance and helplessness are displayed in the presence of the wisdom, power and beneficence of God, as well as His chastening hand.

The snow and hail are laid, up in storehouses — where? Not in some hidden locality, in vast masses, not merely in the viewless vapor filling the firmament, as science now would say, but back of all that, those storehouses of mercy and of judgment are in the hand of God. It is by His word they are produced — the snow, for protection of the grass in winter, and for cooling and refreshing in summer; the hail, in smiting plagues and sweeping judgments (Isa. 28:17). Snow, we are told, is produced by the action of cold upon vapor, turning its molecules into crystals of lovely and varied form. Those forms are planned — by whom? Whose laws are fulfilled by these tiny crystals? The working of whose mind do they display?

Next to its coldness, perhaps more striking than that, snow is the standard for absolute whiteness, of purity. Perhaps Job did not know that this whiteness was caused by the pure white light reflected from the countless faces of its crystals. But what "treasures" of whiteness are reserved by God? He is light, and the snow reflecting the sunlight, suggests how completely His essential righteousness is displayed in that work of redemption which enables Him to say: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Isa. 1:18). Sins that once cried for vengeance, now, through the precious blood of Christ, reflect the glory of God's character! "To declare His righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). In the "redemption that is in Christ Jesus," He has exhaustless stores of whiteness and protection for the sins of the world. What fearful judgments will follow the rejection of that grace! "The wrath of the Lamb!" — the "snow" now falling in a pitiless storm of destruction.

This thought is emphasized in the hail, the frozen drops of rain. Those gentle showers which water the earth that it may bring forth its fruits, turned into death-dealing wrath! For a Christ-rejecting world there is laid up "wrath against the day of wrath," of which the hail is a figure (Ex. 9:22; Hag. 2:17; Ps. 18:12; Rev. 16:21).

The Lord now turns to bring to Job's attention the many elements of the weather, which continually affect people in various ways, - the snow, hail, wind, rain, frost and dew. Amazingly, every snowflake (of which there are trillions) is beautifully designed in a pattern of six points, yet none have ever been found to be identical to another! Snow provides a cover for earth in winter to protect the ground from freezing deeply. In the snow there are treasures of which Job was totally ignorant, and similarly in the hail. While the snow may be for protection, the hail is reserved for times of trouble, battle and war. Both snow and hail are frozen water, but how different they are when falling on earth!

Verses 6-16. The description of God's perfect ways in nature are continued by Elihu. The snow and the rain, the hot blast of the summer, the biting frost of winter, the formation of ice by His breath and the storms, all is in His hands and controlled by Him. O Job! hearken, hearken! Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.