Psalm - 148:8



8 Lightning and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling his word;

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Psalm 148:8.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
Fire and hail, snow and vapor; Stormy wind, fulfilling his word;
Fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds which fulfil his word:
Fire, and hail; snow, and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
Fire and hail, snow and vapour, Whirlwind doing His word;
Fire and rain of ice, snow and mists; storm-wind, doing his word:

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Fire, and hail - Fire, when accompanied by hail; that is, the lightning. See Psalm 18:12.
Snow, and vapors - Snow and clouds. It was not unnatural that these should be combined, or suggested together to the mind.
Stormy wind - The storm; the tempest.
Fulfilling his word - Obeying his command; accomplishing his purpose. Let the storm-wind, which seems to be so little under any control, speak his praise by showing how obedient it is to his will, and how exactly it carries out his designs. Its perfect submission to his laws - the exactness with which, though apparently so fierce, raging, and lawless, it carries out his plans, and pauses when he commands it - is in fact an act of praise or homage, as it proclaims his majesty, his supremacy, and his power. On the sentiment here expressed, compare Psalm 107:29, note; Psalm 89:9, note.

Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours - All kinds of meteors, water, and fire, in all their forms and combinations. And air, whether in the gentle breeze, the gale, the whirlwind, the tempest, or the tornado; each accomplishing an especial purpose, and fulfilling a particular will of the Most High.

(f) Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
(f) Which come not by chance or fortune, but by God's appointed ordinance.

Fire, and hail,.... These, and what follow in this verse, are in the air, but are what are exhaled or drawn up from the earth or water; "fire" is lightning, which is very swift in its motion, and powerful in its effects; this is the fire which consumed Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities of the plain; which in Elijah's time came down and destroyed the captains and their fifties; and which attended the Lord's appearance on Mount Sinai; when "the voice of his thunder was in the heaven, the lightnings lightened the world, and the earth trembled and shook", Psalm 77:18; and by which the power, majesty, and glory of God are greatly displayed; see Psalm 29:3; "hail", which is water frozen in the air and congealed; this was one of the plagues of Egypt; and with hailstones many of the Canaanites were slain in the times of Joshua; and by these God has shown his power, and has got himself praise from his people by destroying their enemies, though they have blasphemed his name on account of them, as they will when the great hailstorm of all shall fall, Revelation 16:21;
snow, and vapour; the former is a gift of God, and very beneficial to the earth, and the cause of praise and thankfulness to God; See Gill on Psalm 147:16; the word (f) for "vapour" signifies smoke, and is what rises out of the earth like smoke, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe; and is hot and dry, and forms lightnings and winds, and has its place among things that occasion praise;
stormy wind fulfilling his word; which is raised up by a word of his command; he creates it, brings it out of his treasures, holds it in his lists, and lets it go out at his pleasure to fulfil his will; either, as at some times in a way of mercy, as to dry up the waters of the flood, to make a way for Israel through the Red sea, to bring quails to them in the wilderness, and rain to the land of Israel in Ahab's time; and sometimes in a way of judgment, to drown Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea, to break the ships of Tarshish, to fetch Jonah the disobedient prophet back, and to distress him afterwards; see Psalm 107:25; to do all this is an argument of divine power, and a proof of deity, as it is of our Lord's, Matthew 8:27. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, read it in the plural number, "which do his word"; referring it not to the stormy wind only, but to fire and hail, snow and vapour; but the Hebrew text restrains it to the stormy wind.
(f) "vapor seu fumus", Piscator, Muis, Gejerus.

fulfilling his word--or, law, may be understood of each. Next the most distinguished productions of the vegetable world.

Fire - Lightnings and other fireworks of the air. Vapour - Or, fumes: hot exhalations. Fulfilling his word - Executing his commands, either for the comfort or punishment of the inhabitants of the earth.

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