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, Ex 9:25; and of a reserve of it in the purposes of God, and in prophecy against the day of battle with antichrist, Re 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 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 ; 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 ; and in the year 443, a vast snow destroyed many .
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", &c. though absurdly applies it to punishment in hell.
Geograph. l. 11. p. 363. Cicero de Divinatione, l. 1. Olaus Magu. de Ritu Gent. Septent. l. 2. c. 13. Whiston's Chronolog. Tables, cent.