Job 9:30

9:30 If I wash myself with snow water, ¹ 

and make my hands clean with lye, ² 

Job 24:19

24:19 The drought as well as the heat carry away

the melted snow; ³ 

so the grave ⁴  takes away those who have sinned. ⁵ 

Job 38:22

38:22 Have you entered the storehouse ⁶  of the snow,

or seen the armory ⁷  of the hail,

[9:30]  ¹ tn The Syriac and Targum Job read with the Qere “with water of [בְמֵי, bÿme] snow.” The Kethib simply has “in [בְמוֹ, bÿmo] snow.” In Ps 51:9 and Isa 1:18 snow forms a simile for purification. Some protest that snow water is not necessarily clean; but if fresh melting snow is meant, then the runoff would be very clear. The image would work well here. Nevertheless, others have followed the later Hebrew meaning for שֶׁלֶג (sheleg) – “soap” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT). Even though that makes a nice parallelism, it is uncertain whether that meaning was in use at the time this text was written.

[9:30]  ² tn The word בֹּר (bor, “lye, potash”) does not refer to purity (Syriac, KJV, ASV), but refers to the ingredient used to make the hands pure or clean. It has the same meaning as בֹּרִית (borit), the alkali or soda made from the ashes of certain plants.

[24:19]  ³ tn Heb “the waters of the snow.”

[24:19]  ⁴ tn Or “so Sheol.”

[24:19]  ⁵ tn This is the meaning of the verse, which in Hebrew only has “The grave / they have sinned.”

[38:22]  ⁵ sn Snow and ice are thought of as being in store, brought out by God for specific purposes, such as times of battle (see Josh 10:11; Exod 9:2ff.; Isa 28:17; Isa 30:30; and Ps 18:12 [13]).

[38:22]  ⁶ tn The same Hebrew term (אוֹצָר, ’otsar), has been translated “storehouse” in the first line and “armory” in the second. This has been done for stylistic variation, but also because “hail,” as one of God’s “weapons” (cf. the following verse) suggests military imagery; in this context the word refers to God’s “ammunition dump” where he stockpiles hail.