Psalms 147:17

He casteth forth his ice - קרחו korcho, (probably hailstones), like crumbs.

Who can stand before his cold? - At particular times the cold in the east is so very intense as to kill man and beast. Jacobus de Vitriaco, one of the writers in the Gesta Dei per Francos, says, that in an expedition in which he was engaged against Mount Tabor, on the 24th of December, the cold was so intense that many of the poor people, and the beasts of burden, died by it. And Albertus Aquensis, another of these writers, speaking of the cold in Judea, says, that thirty of the people who attended Baldwin 1: in the mountainous districts near the Dead Sea, were killed by it; and that in that expedition they had to contend with horrible hail and ice, with unheard-of snow and rain. From thls we find that the winters are often very severe in Judea; and in such cases as the above, we may well call out, "Who can stand against his cold!"

He casteth forth his ice like morsels - The word rendered morsels means properly a bit, a crumb, as of bread, Genesis 18:5; Judges 19:5. The allusion here would seem to be to hail, which God sends upon the earth as easily as one scatters crumbs of bread from the hand.

Who can stand before his cold? - Or, hail. The word is the same, except in pointing, as the preceding word rendered ice. The idea is that no one can stand before the peltings of the hail, when God sends it forth, or scatters it upon the earth.

147:17 Ice - Great hail - stones, which are of an icy nature, and are cast forth out of the clouds, like morsels or fragments.