The East Wind – A Niblet

The Torah refers to the East Wind just a few times – not surprisingly, they are connected to each other.

The first two are the dreams of Pharaoh:

But close behind them sprouted seven ears, thin and scorched by the east wind. (Gen. 41:6)

And in the retelling to Joseph:

but right behind them sprouted seven ears, shriveled, thin, and scorched by the east wind. (Gen: 41:23)

Pharoah’s dreams are just as much about the result of the invasion of the 70 Israelites as it was about 7 years of plenty and famine. And we see it in the result, because the “east wind” is only mentioned again when the Exodus is building:

So Moses held out his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD drove an east wind over the land all that day and all night; and when morning came, the east wind had brought the locusts. (Ex. 10:13)

and

Then Moses held out his arm over the sea and the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind all that night, and turned the sea into dry ground. (Ex. 14:21)

The early dreams are the foreshadowing of what was to come, a matched set.

As a footnote: Canaan, the place both where Jacob’s family comes from, and to where his descendants leave Egypt, are both, at the crossing point, to the East of Egypt.

[another @iwe and @susanquinn collaboration, though I think the original concept – that Pharoah’s dreams referred to the immigration of Jacob’s family and the results – originated with Joseph Cox]