Word study
Wind
5 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: wind, winds. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “wind” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רוּחַ rûachbreath, wind, spirittranslated this way 95 times of its 368 uses · Strong’s H7307Noun · Translated: spirit 189, wind 83, breath 31, winds 8Full study and all 343 verses →
Genesis 8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside.
Exodus 10:13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and throughout that day and night the LORD sent an east wind across the land. By morning the east wind had brought the locusts.
- קָדִים qâdîmEast, east windtranslated this way 10 times of its 68 uses · Strong’s H6921Noun · Translated: east 42, east wind 9, east side 5, eastward 3Full study and all 63 verses →
Genesis 41:6 After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted, thin and scorched by the east wind.
Job 15:2 “Does a wise man answer with empty counsel or fill his belly with the hot east wind?
- סָבַב sâbabturn about, go around, surroundtranslated this way 2 times of its 153 uses · Strong’s H5437Verb · Translated: turned 16, surrounded 13, surround 10, turn 8Full study and all 144 verses →
Genesis 2:11 The name of the first river is the Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
Genesis 2:13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the whole land of Cush.
- רוּחַ rûachwind, spirittranslated this way 2 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H7308Noun · Translated: spirit 9, wind 1, winds 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Daniel 2:35 Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were shattered and became like chaff on the threshing floor in summer. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that had struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
Daniel 7:2 Daniel declared: “In my vision in the night I looked, and suddenly the four winds of heaven were churning up the great sea.
- תֵּימָן têmânsouth, south windtranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H8486Noun · Translated: south 9, south side 2, south wind 2, southward 1Full study and all 16 verses →
Psalm 78:26 He stirred the east wind from the heavens and drove the south wind by His might.
Song of Solomon 4:16 Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind. Breathe on my garden and spread the fragrance of its spices. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choicest fruits.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἄνεμος ánemosthe windtranslated this way 28 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s G417Noun · Translated: wind 18, winds 10Full study and all 26 verses →
Matthew 7:25 The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.
Mark 4:39 Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the sea. “Silence!” He commanded. “Be still!” And the wind died down, and it was perfectly calm.
- πνεῦμα pneûmawind, breath, spirittranslated this way 2 times of its 378 uses · Strong’s G4151Noun · Translated: Spirit 320, spirits 32, breath 3, wind 1Full study and all 343 verses →
John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
- νότος nótosthe south wind, the Southtranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G3558Noun · Translated: of 2, south wind 2, south 2, a 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Luke 12:55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It will be hot,’ and it is.
Acts 28:13 From there we weighed anchor and came to Rhegium. After one day, a south wind came up, and on the second day we arrived at Puteoli.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
What the Bible says about wind: passages by topic →
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.