for this is what the Lord says, ‘You will not feel ¹  any wind or see any rain, but this valley will be full of water and you and your cattle and animals will drink.’

We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight. ¹  We all wither like a leaf; our sins carry us away like the wind.

When his voice thunders, ¹  the heavenly ocean roars. He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. ²  He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain. He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it. ³ 

When his voice thunders, the waters in the heavens roar. He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain. He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it.

Consider! It is planted, but will it prosper? Will it not wither completely when the east wind blows on it? Will it not wither in the soil where it sprouted?’”

But it was plucked up in anger; it was thrown down to the ground. The east wind ¹  dried up its fruit; its strong branches broke off and withered – a fire consumed them.

They sow the wind, and so they will reap the whirlwind! The stalk does not have any standing grain; it will not produce any flour. Even if it were to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it all up.

He ¹  saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. As the night was ending, ²  he came to them walking on the sea, ³  for ⁴  he wanted to pass by them. ⁵ 

They ¹  came ²  and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, ³  we are about to die!” So ⁴  he got up and rebuked ⁵  the wind and the raging waves; ⁶  they died down, and it was calm.

Even though he flourishes like a reed plant, ¹  a scorching east wind will come, a wind from the Lord rising up from the desert. As a result, his spring will dry up; ²  his well will become dry. That wind ³  will spoil all his delightful foods in the containers in his storehouse.

The seven lean, bad-looking cows that came up after them represent seven years, as do the seven empty heads of grain burned with the east wind. They represent ¹  seven years of famine.

Yet when I reflected on everything I had accomplished ¹  and on all the effort that I had expended to accomplish it, ²  I concluded: ³  “All these ⁴  achievements and possessions ⁵  are ultimately ⁶  profitless ⁷  – like chasing the wind! There is nothing gained ⁸  from them ⁹  on earth.”

Then I considered ¹  all the skillful work ²  that is done: Surely it is nothing more than ³  competition ⁴  between one person and another. ⁵  This also is profitless – like ⁶  chasing the wind.

There is no end to all the people ¹  nor to the past generations, ²  yet future generations ³  will not rejoice in him. This also is profitless and like ⁴  chasing the wind.

It was reported to the family ¹  of David, “Syria has allied with ²  Ephraim.” They and their people were emotionally shaken, just as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. ³ 

The Lord will divide ¹  the gulf ²  of the Egyptian Sea; ³  he will wave his hand over the Euphrates River ⁴  and send a strong wind, ⁵  he will turn it into seven dried-up streams, ⁶  and enable them to walk across in their sandals.

Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ¹  when he shouts at ²  them, they will flee to a distant land, driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills, or like dead thistles ³  before a strong gale.

We were pregnant, we strained, we gave birth, as it were, to wind. ¹  We cannot produce deliverance on the earth; people to populate the world are not born. ² 

Each of them ¹  will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from a rainstorm; like streams of water in a dry region and like the shade of a large cliff in a parched land.

My judgment will carry off all your leaders like a storm wind! ¹  Your allies will go into captivity. Then you will certainly ²  be disgraced and put to shame because of all the wickedness you have done.