Frost

Easton, 1897

(Heb. kerah, from its smoothness) Job 37:10 (R.V., "ice"); Genesis 31:40; Jeremiah 36:30; rendered "ice" in Job 6:16, Job 38:29; and "crystal" in Ezekiel 1:22. "At the present day frost is entirely unknown in the lower portions of the valley of the Jordan, but slight frosts are sometimes felt on the sea-coast and near Lebanon." Throughout Western Asia cold frosty nights are frequently succeeded by warm days.

"Hoar frost" (Heb. kephor, so called from its covering the ground) is mentioned in Exodus 16:14; Job 38:29; Psalms 147:16.

In Psalms 78:47 the word rendered "frost" (R.V. marg., "great hail-stones"), hanamal, occurs only there. It is rendered by Gesenius, the Hebrew lexicographer, "ant," and so also by others, but the usual interpretation derived from the ancient versions may be maintained.