What Does Psalm 147:16 Mean in the King James?
He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Winter appears as two deliberate acts: snow is given like a soft covering, while frost is scattered like ashes.
THE MEANING
Snow settles with the softness of wool; frost spreads in the fine scatter of ashes. The verse presents both as active gestures of giving and dispersing, so the cold landscape appears shaped rather than blank.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Winter is only empty backdrop; this verse names snow as given and frost as scattered.
THE ROOT
הַנֹּתֵן
hanoten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
give, set, place
“giveth” in this verse is hanoten. The Hebrew form means “the one giving,” presenting the giving as characteristic. Since נָתַן (natan) also carries the sense of setting or placing, the snow is not merely weather in the scene: it is given and set there.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: gift, something given
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root makes the verse’s “giveth” resonate with the language of a gift.
natun: given, placed
נָתוּן
This form carries the root’s sense of placing, echoing how snow settles into the landscape.
יְפַזֵּר
yefazzer
GROWS FROM
פזר
p-z-r
scatter, disperse
“scattereth” in this verse is yefazzer. The root holds both the act of scattering and the state of being scattered. Frost is pictured not only by its resemblance to ashes, but by how it is dispersed across the ground.
ALSO GROWS
pizzer: he scattered
פִּזֵּר
This form names the dispersing action that the verse gives to the frost.
mefuzzar: scattered, dispersed
מְפֻזָּר
This related form describes the spread-out result, like frost scattered over a surface.
THE PATTERN
Weather is portrayed as God’s active giving, not background scenery.
For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.THE THREAD
Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?Job uses the same Hebrew word, כְּפוֹר (kephor), meaning hoarfrost, and asks from whose womb it comes. The question opens the frost in this verse as something brought forth from a hidden source, not merely a surface of cold.
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