Job 38:22 Commentary and Bible Study

Continuing with the strongly figurative language, the Lord asks Job where is the great treasury out of which the vast stores of snow come? This is a question which begs a multitude of other questions. What is snow? How is it formed? What are the conditions that cause it to come? How does God control the timing of it to align with his eternal purpose? What does it achieve, and how does it affect the behaviour of men and women? God represents himself as providing this treasury out of which come supplies of snow to transform the whole landscape and cover it with a deep silent blanket. Hail comes down with great destructive force, at times flattening crops and damaging property, and the layman watches and wonders where such great stores have come from. These sudden inundations of deep snow and violent hail naturally make man wonder where such vast supplies are kept in reserve. The passage is not trying to teach us that there are really permanent treasuries of snow and hail but is again poetic; it is as if these stores exist. Even in Job’s day, it must have been understood that this was not literally the case. The question therefore is really about the mechanism by which these things are produced, and about this mechanism Job was completely ignorant. Here was another mystery he could not explain, which was nevertheless an undeniable part of his experience, a part of the real world. The reference to the time of trouble and the day of battle probably refers to those occasions (future from Job’s perspective) when God uses hail to overwhelm his enemies in battle or in judgment (Exodus 9:18; Joshua 10:11; Psalm 78:14; Isaiah 28:2; Ezekiel 13:11; 38:22 Revelation 16:21).