Whirlwinds

Whirlwinds

Were very frequent in the deserts of Arabia,  Job 37:9   38:1   Nahum 1:3 , and travelers in the East have encountered many. Most of them are not formidable,  Isaiah 17:13; but one now and then occurs, sudden, swift, and awful in its devastating course; houses and trees are no obstruction in its way, and the traveler is buried alive under the pillar of sand it raises and bears along, like a water-spout at sea,  Job 1:19   Isaiah 21:1 . The sudden and resistless judgments of God are well compared to whirlwinds,  Psalm 58:9   Proverbs 1:27   Isaiah 66:15 . One of the Hebrew words thus translated sometimes denotes only a powerful and tempestuous gust of wind,  Jeremiah 23:19   30:23   Zechariah 9:14 . See Winds .