Psalms 148:8

148:8 O fire and hail, snow and clouds, ¹ 

O stormy wind that carries out his orders, ² 

Job 37:6

37:6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall ³  to earth,’

and to the torrential rains, ⁴  ‘Pour down.’ ⁵ 

Isaiah 55:10

55:10 ⁶ The rain and snow fall from the sky

and do not return,

but instead water the earth

and make it produce and yield crops,

and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.

¹ tn In Ps 119:83 the noun refers to “smoke,” but here, where the elements of nature are addressed, the clouds, which resemble smoke, are probably in view.

² tn Heb “[that] does his word.”

³ tn The verb actually means “be” (found here in the Aramaic form). The verb “to be” can mean “to happen, to fall, to come about.”

⁴ tn Heb “and [to the] shower of rain and shower of rains, be strong.” Many think the repetition grew up by variant readings; several Hebrew mss delete the second pair, and so many editors do. But the repetition may have served to stress the idea that the rains were heavy.

⁵ tn Heb “Be strong.”

⁶ tn This verse begins in the Hebrew text with כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר (ki ka’asher, “for, just as”), which is completed by כֵּן (ken, “so, in the same way”) at the beginning of v. 11. For stylistic reasons, this lengthy sentence is divided up into separate sentences in the translation.