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Summary
- The Hebrew ruach and the Greek pneuma each mean wind, breath and spirit, so wind in Scripture points above all to the Spirit and breath of God.
- At Horeb “the LORD was not in the wind” (1 Kings 19:11). The wind can announce God, but Scripture never makes it divine.
- Jesus compared the Spirit to the wind in John 3:8 and breathed on his disciples in John 20:22, and at Pentecost the Spirit came with “a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind” (Acts 2:2).
- The east wind is the hot desert wind, the sirocco, that withers crops and wrecks ships; the west wind comes from the sea and brings rain; the south wind brings heat; and the north wind brings cold. The KJV says the north wind “driveth away rain” (Proverbs 25:23), while its margin and versions such as the ESV say it brings rain.
- The four winds are the four directions and stand for the whole earth; Scripture gives no list of four kinds of spiritual wind.
- Wind also stands for a short life and wasted effort: Ecclesiastes’ “vexation of spirit” means striving for wind.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (Bible Gateway): Genesis 1:2; 2:7; 8:1; 41:6; 41:27; Exodus 10:13; 10:19; 14:21; 1 Kings 19:11–12; Job 7:7; 37:9; 37:17; 38:1; Psalm 1:4; 48:7; 103:15–16; 104:3–4; 135:7; Proverbs 11:29; 25:23; Ecclesiastes 1:14; Song of Solomon 4:16; Jeremiah 2:23–24; Ezekiel 17:10; 37:9–10; Daniel 2:1; 2:35; 2:44; 7:1–3; 7:17; Hosea 8:7; Jonah 4:8; Matthew 7:24–27; 24:31; Mark 4:37–41; Luke 12:54–55; John 3:4; 3:8; 20:22; Acts 2:2–4; 27:13–14; 27:44; Ephesians 4:14; James 1:6; Revelation 7:1. King James Version
- Genesis 1:2 in the English Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible and JPS Tanakh (1917), Bible Hub parallel translations
- Psalm 104:4 in the New American Standard Bible, New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible and JPS Tanakh (1917), Bible Hub parallel translations
- Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon (1906): ruach, qadim, re’uth
- Joseph Henry Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889): pneuma, anemos, pnoe, emphusao
- Greek interlinear of John 3:8 and Acts 2:2, Bible Hub
- Alfred H. Joy, “Wind”, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), Bible Hub
- Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers and the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on Proverbs 25:23, Bible Hub
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homily 26, translated by Charles Marriott, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 14, New Advent
- Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 48, translated by J. E. Tweed, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, New Advent
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