1 Kings 19:11

19:11 The Lord ¹  said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. Look, the Lord is ready to pass by.”

A very powerful wind went before the Lord, digging into the mountain and causing landslides, ²  but the Lord was not in the wind. After the windstorm there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

Psalms 18:10

18:10 He mounted ³  a winged angel ⁴  and flew;

he glided ⁵  on the wings of the wind. ⁶ 

The Song of Songs 4:16

The Beloved to Her Lover:

4:16 Awake, O north wind; come, O south wind!

Blow on my garden so that its fragrant spices may send out their sweet smell. ⁷ 

May my beloved come into his garden

and eat its delightful fruit!

Ezekiel 3:12-13

Ezekiel Before the Exiles

3:12 Then a wind lifted me up ⁸  and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me as the glory of the Lord rose from its place, ⁹  3:13 and the sound of the living beings’ wings brushing against each other, and the sound of the wheels alongside them, a great rumbling sound.

Ezekiel 37:9-10

37:9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, ¹⁰  – prophesy, son of man – and say to the breath: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these corpses so that they may live.’” 37:10 So I prophesied as I was commanded, and the breath came into them; they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely great army.

John 3:8

3:8 The wind ¹¹  blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ¹² 

[19:11]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:11]  ² tn Heb “tearing away the mountains and breaking the cliffs” (or perhaps, “breaking the stones”).

[18:10]  ³ tn Or “rode upon.”

[18:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “a cherub.” Because of the typical associations of the word “cherub” in English with chubby winged babies, the term has been rendered “winged angel” in the translation.

[18:10]  ⁵ tc 2 Sam 22:11 reads “appeared” (from רָאָה, ra’ah); the relatively rare verb דָאָה (da’ah, “glide”) is more difficult and probably the original reading here in Ps 18.

[18:10]  ⁶ sn The wings of the wind. Verse 10 may depict (1) the Lord riding a cherub, which is in turn propelled by the wind current. Another option (2) is that two different vehicles (a cherub and the wind) are envisioned. Yet another option (3) is that the wind is personified as a cherub. For a discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels to the imagery in v. 10, see M. Weinfeld, “‘Rider of the Clouds’ and ‘Gatherer of the Clouds’,” JANESCU 5 (1973): 422-24.

[4:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “may flow.”

[3:12]  ⁷ sn See note on “wind” in 2:2.

[3:12]  ⁸ tc This translation accepts the emendation suggested in BHS of בְּרוּם (bÿrum) for בָּרוּךְ (barukh). The letters mem (מ) and kaph (כ) were easily confused in the old script while בָּרוּךְ (“blessed be”) both implies a quotation which is out of place here and also does not fit the later phrase, “from its place,” which requires a verb of motion.

[37:9]  ⁹ tn Or “spirit,” and several times in this verse.

[3:8]  ¹¹ tn The same Greek word, πνεύματος (pneumatos), may be translated “wind” or “spirit.”

[3:8]  ¹² sn Again, the physical illustrates the spiritual, although the force is heightened by the word-play here on wind-spirit (see the note on wind at the beginning of this verse). By the end of the verse, however, the final usage of πνεύματος (pneumatos) refers to the Holy Spirit.