Ayub 38:22

38:22 Have you entered the storehouse ¹  of the snow,

or seen the armory ²  of the hail,

Ayub 38:26

38:26 to cause it to rain on an uninhabited land, ³ 

a desert where there are no human beings, ⁴ 

Ayub 38:30

38:30 when the waters become hard ⁵  like stone,

when the surface of the deep is frozen solid?

[38:22]  ¹ 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]  ² 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.

[38:26]  ³ tn Heb “on a land, no man.”

[38:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “a desert, no man in it.”

[38:30]  ⁵ tn Several suggest that the verb is not from חָבָא (khava’, “to hide”) but from a homonym, “to congeal.” This may be too difficult to support, however.