East Wind

The east wind in Scripture is consistently associated with drought, scorching heat, and God's judgment. In Palestine, the east wind (Arabic sirocco) blows off the Arabian desert and Mesopotamian plains, bringing hot, dry, dust-laden air that withers vegetation and makes outdoor life oppressive. Ezekiel repeatedly uses the east wind as a symbol of divine judgment: Tyre's wealth was scattered by it (Ezekiel 27:26), and Pharaoh's Egypt fell before it (Ezekiel 17:10; 19:12).

In the Exodus narrative, the LORD drove back the Red Sea with a strong east wind all night (Exodus 14:21), and an east wind brought the plague of locusts upon Egypt (Exodus 10:13). Job laments that God tosses him about in a storm and dissolves him in the east wind (Job 27:21). Hosea uses the east wind as a figure for the coming Assyrian destruction of Ephraim (Hosea 13:15). In contrast to this destructive force, Isaiah 27:8 speaks of God restraining the east wind as a picture of measured rather than total judgment.