Whirlwind
VIEW:14 DATA:01-04-2020
WHIRLWIND represents two Heb. wordssûphâh (Job_37:9, Pro_1:27 etc., also tr. [Note: translate or translation.] storm in Job_21:13, Psa_83:15, Isa_29:6 etc.), and saar or sĕârâh (2Ki_2:1, Job_38:1, Jer_23:19 etc., also tr. [Note: translate or translation.] tempest, and stormy wind, Psa_55:8; Psa_83:15; Psa_107:25, Eze_13:13 etc.) The words do not necessarily mean whirlwind, and are applied to any furious storm. From the context, however, in certain passages, we gather that whirlwind is intendeda violent wind moving in a circle round its axis (2Ki_2:1; 2Ki_2:11, Job_38:1 etc.). It often works great havoc in its path, as it sweeps across the country. Drawing up sand, dust, straw, and other light articles as it gyrates, it presents the appearance of a great pillaran object of fear to travellers and dwellers in the desert. Passing over the sea, it draws up the water, and the bursting of the column causes the water-spout. God spake to Job from the whirlwind (Job_40:6); the modern Arabian regards it with superstitious dread, as the residence of demons.
W. Ewing.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
suphah, from a root "sweeping away," and searah "tossed about." In Psa_77:18 "Thy thunder was in the heaven," literally, "in the wheel," i.e. the rotation of the visible heavens phenomenally round the earth, but the Septuagint, the Chaldee, and the Vulgate "in a whirl," whirled about. Eze_10:13 translated "it was cried unto them whirling"; they were called to put themselves into rapid revolution.
Jehovah speaks the word which sets the machine of providence in motion, "the wheel (cycle) of creation" or "nature"; Jas_3:6, ton trochon geneseos, one fourfold wheel, two circles cutting one another at right angles. A "whirlwind" moving on its own axis is not meant in 2Ki_2:11. In Job_37:9 "out of the south (literally, chamber, God's unseen regions in the southern hemisphere) cometh the whirlwind" (Isa_21:1); the south wind driving before it burning sands comes from the Arabian deserts upon Babylon (Zec_9:14).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
a wind which rises suddenly from almost every point, is exceedingly impetuous and rapid, and imparts a whirling motion to dust, sand, water, and occasionally to bodies of great weight and bulk, carrying them either upward or downward, and scattering them about in different directions. Whirlwinds and water spouts are supposed to proceed from the same cause; their only difference being, that the latter pass over the water, and the former over the land. Both of them have a progressive as well as a circular motion, generally rise after calms and great heats, and occur most frequently in warm latitudes. The wind blows in every direction from a large surrounding space, both toward the water spout and the whirlwind; and a water spout has been known to pass, in its progressive motion, from sea to land, and, when it has reached the latter, to produce all the phenomena and effects of a whirlwind. There is no doubt, therefore, of their arising from a similar cause, as they are both explicable on the same general principles. In the imagery employed by the sacred writers, these frightful hurricanes are introduced as the immediate instruments of the divine indignation: He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living and in his wrath, Psa_58:9. God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind, Isa_17:13. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet, Nah_1:3. All these are familiar images to the inhabitants of eastern countries, and receive some elucidation from the subjoined descriptions of English travellers. On the 25th, says Bruce, at four o'clock in the afternoon, we set out from the villages of the Nuba, intending to arrive at Basbock, where is the ferry over the Nile; but we had scarcely advanced two miles into the plain, when we were enclosed in a violent whirlwind, or what is called at sea the water spout. The plain was red earth, which had been plentifully moistened by a shower in the night time. The unfortunate camel that had been taken by Cohala seemed to be nearly in the centre of its vortex; it was lifted and thrown down at a considerable distance, and several of its ribs broken; although, as far as I could guess, I was not near the centre, it whirled me off my feet, and threw me down upon my face, so as to make my nose gush out with blood: two of the servants, likewise, had the same fate. It plastered us all over with mud, almost as smoothly as could have been done with a trowel. It took away my sense and breathing for an instant; and my mouth and nose were full of mud when I recovered. I guess the sphere of its action to be about two hundred feet. It demolished one half of a small hut, as if it had been cut through with a knife, and dispersed the materials all over the plain, leaving the other half standing. When there was a perfect calm, observes Morier, partial and strong currents of air would arise, and form whirlwinds, which produced high columns of sand all over the plain. Those that we saw at Shiraz were formed and dissipated in a few minutes: nor is it the nature of this phenomenon to travel far; it being a current of air that takes its way in a capricious and sudden manner, and is dissolved by the very nature of its formation. Whenever one of them took our tents, it generally disturbed them very materially, and frequently threw them down. Their appearance was that of water spouts at sea, and perhaps they are produced in the same manner. And Burchell remarks: The hottest days are often the most calm; and at such times the stillness of the atmosphere was sometimes suddenly disturbed in an extraordinary manner. Whirlwinds, raising up columns of dust to a great height in the air, and sweeping over the plains with momentary fury, were no unusual occurrence. As they were always harmless, it was an amusing sight to watch these tall pillars of dust as they rapidly passed by, carrying up every light substance to the height of from one to even three or four hundred feet. The rate at which they travelled varied from five to ten miles in the hour: their form was seldom straight, nor were they quite perpendicular, but uncertain and changing. Whenever they happened to pass over our fire, all the ashes were scattered in an instant, and nothing remained but the heavier sticks and logs. Sometimes they were observed to disappear, and in a minute or two afterward to make their reappearance at a distance farther on. This occurred whenever they passed over rocky ground, or a surface on which there was no dust, nor other substances sufficiently light to be carried up in the vortex. Sometimes they changed their colour, according to that of the soil or dust which lay in their march; and when they crossed a tract of country where the grass had lately been burned, they assumed a corresponding blackness. But to-day the calm and heat of the air was only the prelude to a violent wind, which commenced as soon as the sun had sunk, and continued during the greater part of the night. The great heat and long-protracted drought, of the season had evaporated all moisture from the earth, and rendered the sandy soil excessively light and dusty. Astonishing quantities of the finer particles of this sand were carried up by the wind, and filled the whole atmosphere, where, at a great height, they were borne along by the tempest, and seemed to be real clouds, although of a reddish hue; while the heavier particles, descending again, presented, at a distance, the appearance of mist or driving rains.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
hwûrl?wind (סוּפה, ṣūphāh (Pro_1:27 10; Pro_10:25 10; Isa_5:28 10; Isa_17:13 10; Isa_66:15 10; Hos_8:7 10; Amo_1:14 10; Nab Amo_1:3), סאר, ṣa‛ar (Hab_3:14; Zec_7:14; Hos_13:3; Psa_58:9; Dan_11:40), סערה, ṣe‛ārāh (2Ki_2:1; Job_38:1; Job_40:6; Isa_40:24; Isa_41:16; Zec_9:14)): When two currents from opposite directions meet, a circular motion results called a whirlwind. On the sea this takes up small particles of water from the sea and condenses some of the moisture in the clouds above, forming a great funnel-shaped column. They are quite common off the coast of Syria. Considerable damage might be done to a small ship overtaken by them. In the desert sand is taken up in the same way, causing terrible sandstorms which are greatly dreaded by caravans. Most of the references in the Bible do not necessarily imply a circular motion, and the word ?tempest? might be used in translation.
Storms usually come from the Southwest. ?Out of the ... south cometh the storm? (Job_37:9); yet in Ezekiel's vision he saw a whirlwind coming out of the north (Eze_1:4). Elijah ?went up by a whirlwind into heaven? (2Ki_2:11). The whirlwind indicates the power and might of Yahweh: ?Yahweh hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm? (Nah_1:3); He ?answered Job out of the whirlwind? (Job_38:1).
Most of the Scriptural uses are figurative; of destruction: ?He will take them away with a whirlwind? (Psa_58:9; Pro_1:27; Pro_10:25; Hos_13:3; Dan_11:40; Amo_1:14; Hab_3:14; Zec_7:14); of quickness: ?wheels as a whirlwind? (Isa_5:28; Isa_66:15; Jer_4:13); of the anger of God: ?A whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury? (Jer_23:19 the King James Version); of punishment to the wicked: ?A continuing whirlwind ... shall fall ... on the wicked? (Jer_30:23 the King James Version).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
[WIND]
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Hos_8:7 (b) We have proved that this is typical of the experience in the life of some of GOD's people. They indulge in sinful practices (the wind), but forget that the results may be tremendously great and damaging as a result of that indulgence (the whirlwind).
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.
(סוּפָה, suphah, Job_37:9; Pro_1:27; Pro_10:25; Isa_5:28; Isa_17:13; Isa_21:1; Isa_66:15; Jer_4:13; Hos_8:7; Amo_1:14; Neh_1:3; elsewhere "storm," etc., denoting the sweeping force of the wind or hurricane; also סִעִר, sdar Jer_23:19; Jer_25:32; Jer_30:23; elsewhere "tempest," or [fem.] סְעָרָה, 2Ki_2:1; 2Ki_2:11; Job_38:1; Job_38:6; Isa_40:24; Isa_41:16; Jer_23:19; Jer_30:23; Eze_1:4; Zec_9:14; elsewhere "storm," etc., which denote rather the violent rain or tempest, although accompanied with wind, Psa_107:25; Eze_13:11; Eze_13:13). "The two Hebrew terms above noted convey the notion of a violent wind, but with a different radical import the former, because such a wind sweeps away every object it encounters; the latter, because the objects so swept away are tossed about and destroyed. In addition to this, Gesenius gives a similar sense to galydl, in Psa_77:18 (A.V. heaven) and Eze_10:1-3 (A.V. 'wheel').
Generally, however, this last term expresses one of the effects of such a storm in rolling along chaff, stubble, or such light articles (Thesaur. page 288). It does not appear that any of the above terms express the specific notion of a whirlwind, i.e., a gale moving violently round on its own axis, and there is no warrant for thie use of the word in the A.V. of 2Ki_2:11. The most violent winds in Palestine come from the east; and the passage in Job_37:9, which in the A.V. reads 'Out of the south cometh the whirlwind,' should rather be rendered 'Out of his chamber,' etc. The whirlwind is frequently used as a metaphor for violent and sweeping destruction. Cyrus's invasion of Babylonia is compared to a southerly gale coming out of the wilderness of Arabia (Isa_21:1; comp. Knobel, ad loc.), the effects of which are most prejudicial in that country. Similar allusions occur in Psa_58:9; Pro_1:27; Pro_10:25; Isa_40:24; Dan_11:40" (Smith). In a large proportion of the passages the terms in question are employed in a figurative sense with reference to the resistless and sweeping destruction that is sure to overtake the wicked, But this of course implies. that tempests of such a character were phenomena not unknown in some parts of Palestine. We have only to look into the accounts of travellers to see how much this is the case, especially in the South Country and the regions bordering on the Dead Sea. Prof. Robinson and party were exposed to a violent. sirocco in the desert, in their route from Akabah to Jerusalem, which continued until towards evening.
"The wind had been all the morning N.E;, but at eleven o'clock it suddenly changed to the south, and came upon us with violence and intense heat, until it blew a perfect tempest. The atmosphere was filled with fine pirticles of sand, forming a bluish haze; the sun was scarcely visible, his disk exhibiting only a dun and sickly hue; and the of the wind came upon our faces as from a burning oven. Often we could not see ten rods around us, and our eyes, ears, mouths, and clothes were filled with sand. The thermometer at twelve o'clock stood at 88<degrees> Fahr., and had apparently been higher; and at two o'clock it had fallen to 76 <degrees>, although the wind still continued. Our Arabs called it shurkiyeh, i.e., an east wind, although it blew fom the south. The simnoon, i.e., burning or poisonous wind, they said, differs from it only in its greater heat the haze, and sand, and discoloration of the air being alike in both. Should it overtake a traveller without water, it may, in certain circumstances, prove fatal to him. He needs water, not only to drink, but it is well to wash the skin. The simoon, they said, prevails only during the season when the khamusius blows in Egypt."
Farther on he states, "The tempest had become a tornado. It was with the utmost difficulty that we could pitch our tent, or keep it upright after it was pitched. For a time the prospect was dreadful, and the storm in itself was probably as terrific as most of those which have given rise to the exaggerated accounts of travellers" (Reseasrches, 1:287, 289). A similar tempest of hot wind, "the glow of the air being like the mouth of a furnace," and fully charged with dust and sand, overtook him in the Arabah, not very far from the Dead Sea, about the end of May (ibid. 2:504). Lieut. Lynch describes, under April 26, a tempest which assailed him on the Dead Sea. It was with difficulty the boat was rowed ashore. He and his companions were nearly stifled with the wind. They sought relief in a ravine, where they found pools sufficient to bathe in; but the relief was only momentary. The wind increased to a tempest; the sun became red and rayless; the thermometer rose to 104 <degrees>; and when "some endeavored to make a screen of one of the boat's awnings, the fierce' wind swept it over in an instant. It was more like a blast of a furnace than living air" (Expedition, page 314). Kitto remarks (Pict. Bible, note on Isa_37:36):
"As we have ourselves only felt the mitigated effecth of this wind on the skirts of deserts and in the shelter of towns, we cannot from experience speak of the more disastrous effects which it exhibits in the open deserts; bust, judging from what we observed under the circumstances indicated, and from such in formation as we have collected, we have no doubt that the numerous accomplished travellers of the last century and the one before, as Chardin, Shaw, Niebuhr, Volney, Bruce, Ives, and others, are correct in their united testimomy, supported as it is by the consenting evidence of natives accustomed to traverse the deserts. It is necessary to mention this, because some more recent travellers, who, on account of the season or direction of their journeys, had no occasion to experience any other than the milder effects of this wind, have seemed to doubt the destructive power which has been attributed to it."
The most complete account of the simoon and its effects is that given by Volney (Travels, 1:4). That part which describes its effects in the towns tourists can confirm from their own experience, and the rest is amply corroborated by the testimony of other travellers.
"Travellers have mentioned these winds under the name of poisonous winds, or, more correctly, hot winds of the desert. Such, in fact, is their quality; and their heat is sometimes so excessive that it is difficult to form an idea of their violence without having experienced it; but it may be compared to the heat of a large oven at the moment of drawing out the bread. When these winds begin to blow, the atmosphere assumes an alarming aspect. The sky, at other times so clear in this climate, becomes dark and heavy, and the sun loses its splendor and appears of a violet color.
The air is not cloudy, but gray and thick, and is, in fact, filled with an extremely subtle dust that penetrates everywhere. This wind, always light and rapid, is not at first remarkably hot, but increases in heat in proportion as it continues. All animated bodies soon discover it by the change it produces in them. The lungs, which a too rarefied air no longer expand: are contracted and become painful. Respiration is short and difficult, the skin parched and dry, and the body consumed by an internal heat. In vain is recourse had to large draughts of water; nothing can restore perspiration. In vain is coolness sought for; all bodies in which it is usual to find it deceive the hand that touches them. Marble, iron, water notwithstanding the sun no longer appears are hot. The streets are deserted and the dead silence of night reigns everywhere. The inhabitants of towns and villages shut themselves up in their houses and those of the desert in their tents, or in pits they dig in the earth where they wait the termination of the destructive heat. It usually lasts three days; but if it exceeds that time, it becomes insupportable.
Woe to the traveller whom this wind surprises remote from shelter! he must suffer all its dreadful consequences, which sometimes are mortal. The danger is most imminent when it blows ill squalls, for then the rapidity of the wind increases the heat to such a degree as to cause sudden death. This death is a real suffocation; the lungs, being empty, are convulsed, the circulation disordered, and the whole mass of blood driven by the heat towards the head and breast; whence that hemorrhage at the nose and mouth which happens after death. This wind is especially fatal to persons of a plethoric habit, and those in whom fatigue has destroyed the tone of the muscles and vessels. The corpse remains a long time warm, swells, turns blue, alnd is easily separated; all of which are signs of that putrid fermentation which takes place when the humors become stagnant. These accidents are to be avoided by stopping the nose and mouth with handkerchiefs. An efficacious method is also that practiced by the camels, who bury their noses in the sand, and keep them there till the squall is over. Another quality of this wind is its extreme aridity, which is such that water sprinkled upon the floor evaporates in a few minutes. By this extreme dryness it withers and strips all the plants; and, by inhaling too suddenly the emanations from animal bodies, crisps the skin, closes the pores, and causes that feverish heat which is the invariable effect of suppressed perspiration."
The ninth plague with which the Lord afflicted the Egyptians was a thick darkness, which is generally identified with the tempest called khamsin, prevalent in Egypt in the months of April and May (Exo_10:21-23). When the khamsin blows, the sun is pale yellow, its light is obscured, and the darkness is sometimes so great that one seems to be in the blackest night, even in the middle of the day. Sonini says, "The atmosphere was heated, and at the same time obscured by clouds of dust. Men and animals breathed only vapor, and that was mingled with a fine and hot sand. Plants drooped, and all living nature languished.
The air was dark on account of a thick mist of fine dust as red as flame." Hartmann says, "The inhabitants of the cities and villages shut themselves up in the lowest apartments of their houses and cellars; but the inhabitants of the desert go into their tents, or into the holes which they have dug in the ground. There they await, full of anxiety, the termination of this kind of tempest, which generally lasts three days." The hot wind of the desert, called by the Italians sirocco, and by the Arabs shurkiyeh, i.e., an east wind, resembles the khamsin of Egypt. The sand-storms occur in the most awful form in deserts, when the fine sand is thrown into hillocks, and these are swept by furious winds, the sand of which they are formed being tossed on high, and whirled rapidly and densely through the air, until the storm has finally subsided. Under this most awful visitation of the sand-storm, it sometimes happens that travellers and their cattle are overwhelmed and suffocated. And even the more common and less dangerous forms ot this phenomenon, which occur in regions less absolutely sandy, or where the sands are less extensive than in the great sandy deserts of Asia, are still very formidable and alarming. Mr. Buckingham has given a description of such a storm, of that kind which must have been familiar to the Israelites during their wanderings. It occurred in the desert of Suez, that is, on the western verge of that sandy desert which occupies a considerable portion of the country between Egypt and Palestine.
The morning was delightful on our setting out, and promised us a fine day: but the light airs from the south soon increased to a gale, the sun became obscure, and as every hour brought us into a looser sand, it flew about us in such whirlwinds, with the sudden gusts that blew, that it was impossible to proceed. We halted, therefore, for an hour, and took shelter under the lee of our beasts, who were themselves so terrified as to need fastening by the knees, and uttered in their wailings but a melancholy symphony. . . . Fifty gales of wind at sea appeared to me more easy to be encountered than one among these sands. It is impossible to imagine desolation more complete. We could see neither sun, earth, nor sky; the plain at ten paces' distance was absolutely imperceptible. Our beasts, as well as ourselves, were so covered as to render breathing difficult; they hid their faces in the ground, and we could only uncover our own for amoment to behold this chaos of mid-day darkness, and wait patiently for its abatement."
Dr. Thomson states (Land and Book, 2:311), "We have two kinds of sirocco one accompanied by vehement wind, which fills the air with dust and fine sand, I have often seen the whole heavens veiled in gloom with this sort of sand-cloud, through which the sun, shorn of his beams. looked like a globe of dull, smouldering fire." SEE WIND.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
W. Ewing.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
suphah, from a root "sweeping away," and searah "tossed about." In Psa_77:18 "Thy thunder was in the heaven," literally, "in the wheel," i.e. the rotation of the visible heavens phenomenally round the earth, but the Septuagint, the Chaldee, and the Vulgate "in a whirl," whirled about. Eze_10:13 translated "it was cried unto them whirling"; they were called to put themselves into rapid revolution.
Jehovah speaks the word which sets the machine of providence in motion, "the wheel (cycle) of creation" or "nature"; Jas_3:6, ton trochon geneseos, one fourfold wheel, two circles cutting one another at right angles. A "whirlwind" moving on its own axis is not meant in 2Ki_2:11. In Job_37:9 "out of the south (literally, chamber, God's unseen regions in the southern hemisphere) cometh the whirlwind" (Isa_21:1); the south wind driving before it burning sands comes from the Arabian deserts upon Babylon (Zec_9:14).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
a wind which rises suddenly from almost every point, is exceedingly impetuous and rapid, and imparts a whirling motion to dust, sand, water, and occasionally to bodies of great weight and bulk, carrying them either upward or downward, and scattering them about in different directions. Whirlwinds and water spouts are supposed to proceed from the same cause; their only difference being, that the latter pass over the water, and the former over the land. Both of them have a progressive as well as a circular motion, generally rise after calms and great heats, and occur most frequently in warm latitudes. The wind blows in every direction from a large surrounding space, both toward the water spout and the whirlwind; and a water spout has been known to pass, in its progressive motion, from sea to land, and, when it has reached the latter, to produce all the phenomena and effects of a whirlwind. There is no doubt, therefore, of their arising from a similar cause, as they are both explicable on the same general principles. In the imagery employed by the sacred writers, these frightful hurricanes are introduced as the immediate instruments of the divine indignation: He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living and in his wrath, Psa_58:9. God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind, Isa_17:13. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet, Nah_1:3. All these are familiar images to the inhabitants of eastern countries, and receive some elucidation from the subjoined descriptions of English travellers. On the 25th, says Bruce, at four o'clock in the afternoon, we set out from the villages of the Nuba, intending to arrive at Basbock, where is the ferry over the Nile; but we had scarcely advanced two miles into the plain, when we were enclosed in a violent whirlwind, or what is called at sea the water spout. The plain was red earth, which had been plentifully moistened by a shower in the night time. The unfortunate camel that had been taken by Cohala seemed to be nearly in the centre of its vortex; it was lifted and thrown down at a considerable distance, and several of its ribs broken; although, as far as I could guess, I was not near the centre, it whirled me off my feet, and threw me down upon my face, so as to make my nose gush out with blood: two of the servants, likewise, had the same fate. It plastered us all over with mud, almost as smoothly as could have been done with a trowel. It took away my sense and breathing for an instant; and my mouth and nose were full of mud when I recovered. I guess the sphere of its action to be about two hundred feet. It demolished one half of a small hut, as if it had been cut through with a knife, and dispersed the materials all over the plain, leaving the other half standing. When there was a perfect calm, observes Morier, partial and strong currents of air would arise, and form whirlwinds, which produced high columns of sand all over the plain. Those that we saw at Shiraz were formed and dissipated in a few minutes: nor is it the nature of this phenomenon to travel far; it being a current of air that takes its way in a capricious and sudden manner, and is dissolved by the very nature of its formation. Whenever one of them took our tents, it generally disturbed them very materially, and frequently threw them down. Their appearance was that of water spouts at sea, and perhaps they are produced in the same manner. And Burchell remarks: The hottest days are often the most calm; and at such times the stillness of the atmosphere was sometimes suddenly disturbed in an extraordinary manner. Whirlwinds, raising up columns of dust to a great height in the air, and sweeping over the plains with momentary fury, were no unusual occurrence. As they were always harmless, it was an amusing sight to watch these tall pillars of dust as they rapidly passed by, carrying up every light substance to the height of from one to even three or four hundred feet. The rate at which they travelled varied from five to ten miles in the hour: their form was seldom straight, nor were they quite perpendicular, but uncertain and changing. Whenever they happened to pass over our fire, all the ashes were scattered in an instant, and nothing remained but the heavier sticks and logs. Sometimes they were observed to disappear, and in a minute or two afterward to make their reappearance at a distance farther on. This occurred whenever they passed over rocky ground, or a surface on which there was no dust, nor other substances sufficiently light to be carried up in the vortex. Sometimes they changed their colour, according to that of the soil or dust which lay in their march; and when they crossed a tract of country where the grass had lately been burned, they assumed a corresponding blackness. But to-day the calm and heat of the air was only the prelude to a violent wind, which commenced as soon as the sun had sunk, and continued during the greater part of the night. The great heat and long-protracted drought, of the season had evaporated all moisture from the earth, and rendered the sandy soil excessively light and dusty. Astonishing quantities of the finer particles of this sand were carried up by the wind, and filled the whole atmosphere, where, at a great height, they were borne along by the tempest, and seemed to be real clouds, although of a reddish hue; while the heavier particles, descending again, presented, at a distance, the appearance of mist or driving rains.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
hwûrl?wind (סוּפה, ṣūphāh (Pro_1:27 10; Pro_10:25 10; Isa_5:28 10; Isa_17:13 10; Isa_66:15 10; Hos_8:7 10; Amo_1:14 10; Nab Amo_1:3), סאר, ṣa‛ar (Hab_3:14; Zec_7:14; Hos_13:3; Psa_58:9; Dan_11:40), סערה, ṣe‛ārāh (2Ki_2:1; Job_38:1; Job_40:6; Isa_40:24; Isa_41:16; Zec_9:14)): When two currents from opposite directions meet, a circular motion results called a whirlwind. On the sea this takes up small particles of water from the sea and condenses some of the moisture in the clouds above, forming a great funnel-shaped column. They are quite common off the coast of Syria. Considerable damage might be done to a small ship overtaken by them. In the desert sand is taken up in the same way, causing terrible sandstorms which are greatly dreaded by caravans. Most of the references in the Bible do not necessarily imply a circular motion, and the word ?tempest? might be used in translation.
Storms usually come from the Southwest. ?Out of the ... south cometh the storm? (Job_37:9); yet in Ezekiel's vision he saw a whirlwind coming out of the north (Eze_1:4). Elijah ?went up by a whirlwind into heaven? (2Ki_2:11). The whirlwind indicates the power and might of Yahweh: ?Yahweh hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm? (Nah_1:3); He ?answered Job out of the whirlwind? (Job_38:1).
Most of the Scriptural uses are figurative; of destruction: ?He will take them away with a whirlwind? (Psa_58:9; Pro_1:27; Pro_10:25; Hos_13:3; Dan_11:40; Amo_1:14; Hab_3:14; Zec_7:14); of quickness: ?wheels as a whirlwind? (Isa_5:28; Isa_66:15; Jer_4:13); of the anger of God: ?A whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury? (Jer_23:19 the King James Version); of punishment to the wicked: ?A continuing whirlwind ... shall fall ... on the wicked? (Jer_30:23 the King James Version).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
[WIND]
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Hos_8:7 (b) We have proved that this is typical of the experience in the life of some of GOD's people. They indulge in sinful practices (the wind), but forget that the results may be tremendously great and damaging as a result of that indulgence (the whirlwind).
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.
(סוּפָה, suphah, Job_37:9; Pro_1:27; Pro_10:25; Isa_5:28; Isa_17:13; Isa_21:1; Isa_66:15; Jer_4:13; Hos_8:7; Amo_1:14; Neh_1:3; elsewhere "storm," etc., denoting the sweeping force of the wind or hurricane; also סִעִר, sdar Jer_23:19; Jer_25:32; Jer_30:23; elsewhere "tempest," or [fem.] סְעָרָה, 2Ki_2:1; 2Ki_2:11; Job_38:1; Job_38:6; Isa_40:24; Isa_41:16; Jer_23:19; Jer_30:23; Eze_1:4; Zec_9:14; elsewhere "storm," etc., which denote rather the violent rain or tempest, although accompanied with wind, Psa_107:25; Eze_13:11; Eze_13:13). "The two Hebrew terms above noted convey the notion of a violent wind, but with a different radical import the former, because such a wind sweeps away every object it encounters; the latter, because the objects so swept away are tossed about and destroyed. In addition to this, Gesenius gives a similar sense to galydl, in Psa_77:18 (A.V. heaven) and Eze_10:1-3 (A.V. 'wheel').
Generally, however, this last term expresses one of the effects of such a storm in rolling along chaff, stubble, or such light articles (Thesaur. page 288). It does not appear that any of the above terms express the specific notion of a whirlwind, i.e., a gale moving violently round on its own axis, and there is no warrant for thie use of the word in the A.V. of 2Ki_2:11. The most violent winds in Palestine come from the east; and the passage in Job_37:9, which in the A.V. reads 'Out of the south cometh the whirlwind,' should rather be rendered 'Out of his chamber,' etc. The whirlwind is frequently used as a metaphor for violent and sweeping destruction. Cyrus's invasion of Babylonia is compared to a southerly gale coming out of the wilderness of Arabia (Isa_21:1; comp. Knobel, ad loc.), the effects of which are most prejudicial in that country. Similar allusions occur in Psa_58:9; Pro_1:27; Pro_10:25; Isa_40:24; Dan_11:40" (Smith). In a large proportion of the passages the terms in question are employed in a figurative sense with reference to the resistless and sweeping destruction that is sure to overtake the wicked, But this of course implies. that tempests of such a character were phenomena not unknown in some parts of Palestine. We have only to look into the accounts of travellers to see how much this is the case, especially in the South Country and the regions bordering on the Dead Sea. Prof. Robinson and party were exposed to a violent. sirocco in the desert, in their route from Akabah to Jerusalem, which continued until towards evening.
"The wind had been all the morning N.E;, but at eleven o'clock it suddenly changed to the south, and came upon us with violence and intense heat, until it blew a perfect tempest. The atmosphere was filled with fine pirticles of sand, forming a bluish haze; the sun was scarcely visible, his disk exhibiting only a dun and sickly hue; and the of the wind came upon our faces as from a burning oven. Often we could not see ten rods around us, and our eyes, ears, mouths, and clothes were filled with sand. The thermometer at twelve o'clock stood at 88<degrees> Fahr., and had apparently been higher; and at two o'clock it had fallen to 76 <degrees>, although the wind still continued. Our Arabs called it shurkiyeh, i.e., an east wind, although it blew fom the south. The simnoon, i.e., burning or poisonous wind, they said, differs from it only in its greater heat the haze, and sand, and discoloration of the air being alike in both. Should it overtake a traveller without water, it may, in certain circumstances, prove fatal to him. He needs water, not only to drink, but it is well to wash the skin. The simoon, they said, prevails only during the season when the khamusius blows in Egypt."
Farther on he states, "The tempest had become a tornado. It was with the utmost difficulty that we could pitch our tent, or keep it upright after it was pitched. For a time the prospect was dreadful, and the storm in itself was probably as terrific as most of those which have given rise to the exaggerated accounts of travellers" (Reseasrches, 1:287, 289). A similar tempest of hot wind, "the glow of the air being like the mouth of a furnace," and fully charged with dust and sand, overtook him in the Arabah, not very far from the Dead Sea, about the end of May (ibid. 2:504). Lieut. Lynch describes, under April 26, a tempest which assailed him on the Dead Sea. It was with difficulty the boat was rowed ashore. He and his companions were nearly stifled with the wind. They sought relief in a ravine, where they found pools sufficient to bathe in; but the relief was only momentary. The wind increased to a tempest; the sun became red and rayless; the thermometer rose to 104 <degrees>; and when "some endeavored to make a screen of one of the boat's awnings, the fierce' wind swept it over in an instant. It was more like a blast of a furnace than living air" (Expedition, page 314). Kitto remarks (Pict. Bible, note on Isa_37:36):
"As we have ourselves only felt the mitigated effecth of this wind on the skirts of deserts and in the shelter of towns, we cannot from experience speak of the more disastrous effects which it exhibits in the open deserts; bust, judging from what we observed under the circumstances indicated, and from such in formation as we have collected, we have no doubt that the numerous accomplished travellers of the last century and the one before, as Chardin, Shaw, Niebuhr, Volney, Bruce, Ives, and others, are correct in their united testimomy, supported as it is by the consenting evidence of natives accustomed to traverse the deserts. It is necessary to mention this, because some more recent travellers, who, on account of the season or direction of their journeys, had no occasion to experience any other than the milder effects of this wind, have seemed to doubt the destructive power which has been attributed to it."
The most complete account of the simoon and its effects is that given by Volney (Travels, 1:4). That part which describes its effects in the towns tourists can confirm from their own experience, and the rest is amply corroborated by the testimony of other travellers.
"Travellers have mentioned these winds under the name of poisonous winds, or, more correctly, hot winds of the desert. Such, in fact, is their quality; and their heat is sometimes so excessive that it is difficult to form an idea of their violence without having experienced it; but it may be compared to the heat of a large oven at the moment of drawing out the bread. When these winds begin to blow, the atmosphere assumes an alarming aspect. The sky, at other times so clear in this climate, becomes dark and heavy, and the sun loses its splendor and appears of a violet color.
The air is not cloudy, but gray and thick, and is, in fact, filled with an extremely subtle dust that penetrates everywhere. This wind, always light and rapid, is not at first remarkably hot, but increases in heat in proportion as it continues. All animated bodies soon discover it by the change it produces in them. The lungs, which a too rarefied air no longer expand: are contracted and become painful. Respiration is short and difficult, the skin parched and dry, and the body consumed by an internal heat. In vain is recourse had to large draughts of water; nothing can restore perspiration. In vain is coolness sought for; all bodies in which it is usual to find it deceive the hand that touches them. Marble, iron, water notwithstanding the sun no longer appears are hot. The streets are deserted and the dead silence of night reigns everywhere. The inhabitants of towns and villages shut themselves up in their houses and those of the desert in their tents, or in pits they dig in the earth where they wait the termination of the destructive heat. It usually lasts three days; but if it exceeds that time, it becomes insupportable.
Woe to the traveller whom this wind surprises remote from shelter! he must suffer all its dreadful consequences, which sometimes are mortal. The danger is most imminent when it blows ill squalls, for then the rapidity of the wind increases the heat to such a degree as to cause sudden death. This death is a real suffocation; the lungs, being empty, are convulsed, the circulation disordered, and the whole mass of blood driven by the heat towards the head and breast; whence that hemorrhage at the nose and mouth which happens after death. This wind is especially fatal to persons of a plethoric habit, and those in whom fatigue has destroyed the tone of the muscles and vessels. The corpse remains a long time warm, swells, turns blue, alnd is easily separated; all of which are signs of that putrid fermentation which takes place when the humors become stagnant. These accidents are to be avoided by stopping the nose and mouth with handkerchiefs. An efficacious method is also that practiced by the camels, who bury their noses in the sand, and keep them there till the squall is over. Another quality of this wind is its extreme aridity, which is such that water sprinkled upon the floor evaporates in a few minutes. By this extreme dryness it withers and strips all the plants; and, by inhaling too suddenly the emanations from animal bodies, crisps the skin, closes the pores, and causes that feverish heat which is the invariable effect of suppressed perspiration."
The ninth plague with which the Lord afflicted the Egyptians was a thick darkness, which is generally identified with the tempest called khamsin, prevalent in Egypt in the months of April and May (Exo_10:21-23). When the khamsin blows, the sun is pale yellow, its light is obscured, and the darkness is sometimes so great that one seems to be in the blackest night, even in the middle of the day. Sonini says, "The atmosphere was heated, and at the same time obscured by clouds of dust. Men and animals breathed only vapor, and that was mingled with a fine and hot sand. Plants drooped, and all living nature languished.
The air was dark on account of a thick mist of fine dust as red as flame." Hartmann says, "The inhabitants of the cities and villages shut themselves up in the lowest apartments of their houses and cellars; but the inhabitants of the desert go into their tents, or into the holes which they have dug in the ground. There they await, full of anxiety, the termination of this kind of tempest, which generally lasts three days." The hot wind of the desert, called by the Italians sirocco, and by the Arabs shurkiyeh, i.e., an east wind, resembles the khamsin of Egypt. The sand-storms occur in the most awful form in deserts, when the fine sand is thrown into hillocks, and these are swept by furious winds, the sand of which they are formed being tossed on high, and whirled rapidly and densely through the air, until the storm has finally subsided. Under this most awful visitation of the sand-storm, it sometimes happens that travellers and their cattle are overwhelmed and suffocated. And even the more common and less dangerous forms ot this phenomenon, which occur in regions less absolutely sandy, or where the sands are less extensive than in the great sandy deserts of Asia, are still very formidable and alarming. Mr. Buckingham has given a description of such a storm, of that kind which must have been familiar to the Israelites during their wanderings. It occurred in the desert of Suez, that is, on the western verge of that sandy desert which occupies a considerable portion of the country between Egypt and Palestine.
The morning was delightful on our setting out, and promised us a fine day: but the light airs from the south soon increased to a gale, the sun became obscure, and as every hour brought us into a looser sand, it flew about us in such whirlwinds, with the sudden gusts that blew, that it was impossible to proceed. We halted, therefore, for an hour, and took shelter under the lee of our beasts, who were themselves so terrified as to need fastening by the knees, and uttered in their wailings but a melancholy symphony. . . . Fifty gales of wind at sea appeared to me more easy to be encountered than one among these sands. It is impossible to imagine desolation more complete. We could see neither sun, earth, nor sky; the plain at ten paces' distance was absolutely imperceptible. Our beasts, as well as ourselves, were so covered as to render breathing difficult; they hid their faces in the ground, and we could only uncover our own for amoment to behold this chaos of mid-day darkness, and wait patiently for its abatement."
Dr. Thomson states (Land and Book, 2:311), "We have two kinds of sirocco one accompanied by vehement wind, which fills the air with dust and fine sand, I have often seen the whole heavens veiled in gloom with this sort of sand-cloud, through which the sun, shorn of his beams. looked like a globe of dull, smouldering fire." SEE WIND.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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