Hebrew word · H7140

קֶ֫רַח

karach

ice

Ice or frost: frozen water in any form. It is used of night frost (Gen 31:40; Jer 36:30), of water hardened into ice (Job 37:10; 38:29), and here of ice that is thrown down, which most naturally means hail.

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) frost, ice, ice crystal

1a) frost (of night)

1b) ice

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Psalm 147:17

Range of meaning

Ice or frost: frozen water in any form. It is used of night frost (Gen 31:40; Jer 36:30), of water hardened into ice (Job 37:10; 38:29), and here of ice that is thrown down, which most naturally means hail.

Against the English

KJV, YLT and NASB keep 'ice'. BSB, WEB and NIV say 'hail', which reads the image correctly but narrows the word. ESV's 'crystals of ice' tries to keep both 'ice' and 'small pieces'.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) renders it krystallos, 'ice', and the Latin Vulgate follows with crystallum. Job 38:29 asks 'from whose womb comes the ice?', using the same word for ice as part of God's storehouse of weather.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 31:40 וְקֶ֣רַח and frost

    As it was, the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.

Job · 3

  1. Job 6:16 קָ֑רַח ice

    darkened because of the ice and the inflow of melting snow,

  2. Job 37:10 קָ֑רַח ice

    By the breath of God the ice is formed and the watery expanses are frozen.

  3. Job 38:29 הַקָּ֑רַח the ice

    From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 147:17 קַֽרְח֣וֹ ice his

    He casts forth His hail like pebbles. Who can withstand His icy blast?

    Here: Frozen water in general: ice, frost, and here most likely hail, since it is 'thrown' and falls in small pieces. 'His' marks the ice as God's own possession and tool, like 'his word' and 'his wind' in v. 18.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 36:30 וְלַקֶּ֥רַח and to the frost

    Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his body will be thrown out and exposed to heat by day and frost by night.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 1:22 הַקֶּ֣רַח <the> frost

    Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was the likeness of an awesome expanse, gleaming like crystal.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.