HOARFROST

A silvery-white deposit of ice needles formed by direct condensation at freezing temperatures. The ice crystals are long and needle shaped; usually they are perpendicular to the objects on which they occur and are most abundant along their edges. The moisture in the atmosphere freezes without passing through the liquid state, condensing on trees, plants, and other objects, usually in the night. It is often found on windows.

Jehovah speaks to Job of “the hoarfrost of heaven,” doubtless because it is produced from the atmosphere by condensation. (Job 38:29) Of Jehovah, the psalmist says: “Hoarfrost he scatters just like ashes.” (Ps 147:16) Jehovah gives forth the hoarfrost with as much ease as a man scatters ashes with his hand. It covers, or encrusts, such things as trees, grass, and houses with a covering, just as though ashes had been scattered over them by Jehovah’s invisible hand.

The manna provided by Jehovah for the Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness is described in this way at Exodus 16:14: “The layer of dew evaporated and here upon the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flaky thing, fine like hoarfrost upon the earth.”