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east winds in the Bible

The Bible refers to winds coming from the east (Job 27:21; Isaiah 27:8, etc.)

In Israel, this wind blows from a burning desert, and hence is destitute of moisture necessary for vegetation.

The Bible mentions the effect caused by this wind, “thin ears” of grain (Genesis 41:6) and a withered plant (Jonah 4:8).

And behold, seven ears, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up after them. —Genesis 41:6 LSB

God taught Jonah using the wind and sun.

And Yahweh said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. And there he made a booth for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.

So Yahweh God appointed a plant, and it came up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his miserable evil. And Jonah was extremely glad about the plant. But God appointed a worm at the breaking of dawn the next day, and it struck the plant, and it dried up.

Then it happened that as the sun rose up, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun struck down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and asked with all his soul to die and said, “Death is better to me than life.”

Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?”

And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”

Then Yahweh said, “You had pity on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came to be overnight and perished overnight. So should I not have pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” —Jonah 4:4-11 LSB

The east wind was the cause and also an emblem of evil in the books of Ezekiel and Hosea.

And behold, though it is planted, will it succeed? Will it not completely dry up as soon as the east wind strikes it—dry up on the beds where it sprouted? —Ezekiel 17:10 LSB

Though he [Ephraim, representing the Kingdom of Israel] is fruitful among the reeds,
An east wind will come,
The wind of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness;
And his fountain will become dry,
And his spring will be dried up;
It will plunder his treasury of every desirable article. —Hosea 13:15 LSB

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Article Version: September 19, 2024