Job 38:23

23 Which I have kept for the time of trouble, for the day of war and fighting?

Job 38:23 Meaning and Commentary

Job 38:23

Which I have reserved against the time of trouble
For the punishment or affliction of men; and is explained as follows,

against the day of battle and war?
as his artillery and ammunition to light his enemies with. Of hail we have instances in Scripture, as employed against the Egyptians and Canaanites, ( Exodus 9:25 ) ( Joshua 10:11 ) ; and of a reserve of it in the purposes of God, and in prophecy against the day of battle with antichrist, ( Revelation 16:21 ) ; and so Jarchi interprets it here of the war of Gog and Magog. And though there are no instances of snow being used in this way in Scripture, yet there is in history. Strabo ^F19 reports, that at Corzena and Cambysena, which join to Mount Caucasus, such snows have fallen, that whole companies of men have been swallowed up in them; and even armies have been overwhelmed with them, as the army of the Gauls ^F20; and such quantities have been thrown down from mountains, on which they have been lodged, that towns, towers, and villages, have been laid prostrate by them ^F21; and in the year 443, a vast snow destroyed many ^F23. Frequently do we hear in our parts of the disasters occasioned by them. The Targum particularly makes mention of snow; and renders it, "which snow I have reserved" though absurdly applies it to punishment in hell.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 Geograph. l. 11. p. 363.
F20 Cicero de Divinatione, l. 1.
F21 Olaus Magu. de Ritu Gent. Septent. l. 2. c. 13.
F23 Whiston's Chronolog. Tables, cent. 20.

Job 38:23 In-Context

21 No doubt you have knowledge of it, for then you had come to birth, and the number of your days is great.

22 Have you come into the secret place of snow, or have you seen the store-houses of the ice-drops,

23 Which I have kept for the time of trouble, for the day of war and fighting?

24 Which is the way to the place where the wind is measured out, and the east wind sent out over the earth?

25 By whom has the way been cut for the flowing of the rain, and the flaming of the thunder;