kadim · east, east wind

What it means

kadim (קָדִים) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “east, east wind”.

The east; the east wind, dry and hot, that comes from the desert.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. The direction where the sun rises.
2. A hot, dry wind from the desert that scorches plants.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

The east; and the east wind, which in the land of Israel blows from the desert, dry and hot. It is of the root קָדַם (be in front): the east is the side one faces. Of the same root is קֶדֶם (antiquity, east, H6924).

• The east wind that dries and scorches Genesis 41:6Jonah 4:8Hosea 13:15
• The east wind in the exodus Exodus 10:13Exodus 14:21
• The wind that breaks the ships Psalms 48:7
• The east side in the vision of the temple Ezekiel 43:1Ezekiel 47:2

Historical and cultural background

The text describes its effects: ears “scorched by the east wind” (Genesis 41:6), a wind “rising from the wilderness” that dries up the spring (Hosea 13:15), a wind that “had brought the locusts” on Egypt (Exodus 10:13) and that drove back the sea (Exodus 14:21).

How we translate it

“East” 66 times, both in the measurements of Ezekiel's temple (“toward the east”, Ezekiel 43:1) and in “east wind”, where “wind” is another Hebrew word; “eastward” 2. In Habakkuk 1:9 it is translated “forward”.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• east ×66
• eastward ×2
• forward ×1

Where it appears

• Genesis×3
• Exodus×3
• Job×3
• Psalms×2
• Isaiah×1
• Jeremiah×1
• Ezekiel×52
• Hosea×2
• Jonah×1
• Habakkuk×1

• Genesis 41:6

  And look, seven ears, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouted after them.

• Genesis 41:23

  And look, seven ears, withered, thin, scorched by the east wind, sprouted after them.

• Genesis 41:27

  And the seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears, scorched by the east wind, will be seven years of famine.

• Exodus 10:13

  So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and YHWH drove an east wind over the land all that day and all the night; when it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts.

• Exodus 14:21

  Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and YHWH drove back the sea by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were split.

• Job 15:2

  “Will a wise man answer with knowledge of wind, and fill his belly with the east wind?

• Job 27:21

  The east wind lifts him up, and he is gone; and it sweeps him away in a storm from his place.

• Job 38:24

  What is the way by which the light is distributed, or the east wind scattered over the earth?

• Psalms 48:7

  With an east wind you break the ships of Tarshish.

• Psalms 78:26

  He sent forth the east wind in the heavens, and drove by his strength the south wind,

• Isaiah 27:8

  With measure, by sending her away you contended with her; he removed her with his hard wind in the day of the east wind.

• Jeremiah 18:17

  Like the wind from the east I will scatter them before the enemy; the back and not the face I will show them in the day of their calamity.”

• Ezekiel 11:1

  And a spirit lifted me up and brought me to the eastern gate of the house of YHWH, which faces east; and look, at the entrance of the gate twenty-five men, and I saw among them Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

• Ezekiel 17:10

  And look, it is planted; will it prosper? Will it not wither completely when the east wind touches it? On the beds of its sprouting it will wither.’”

• Ezekiel 19:12

  But she was uprooted in fury, to the earth she was cast down; and the east wind dried up her fruit; her strong rods were broken off and withered; fire consumed it.

• Ezekiel 27:26

  Into many waters your rowers have brought you; the east wind has broken you in the heart of the seas.

• Ezekiel 40:6

  And he came to the gate that faced toward the east, and went up its steps, and measured the threshold of the gate, one reed wide, and the other threshold, one reed wide.

• Ezekiel 40:10

  And the guardrooms of the gate toward the east, three on this side and three on that side, one measure for the three of them, and one measure for the pilasters on this side and on that side.

• Ezekiel 40:19

  And he measured the width from the front of the lower gate to the front of the inner court outside, a hundred cubits, on the east and the north.

• Ezekiel 40:22

  And its windows and its porticoes and its palm trees were according to the measure of the gate that faced toward the east; and by seven steps they went up to it, and its porticoes were in front of them.

• Ezekiel 40:23

  And there was a gate to the inner court opposite the gate to the north and to the east; and he measured from gate to gate, a hundred cubits.

• Ezekiel 40:32

  And he brought me into the inner court toward the east, and he measured the gate according to these measures.

• Ezekiel 40:44

  And outside the inner gate were chambers for the singers in the inner court, which was beside the side of the north gate, with their front toward the south, one beside the side of the east gate, facing toward the north.

• Ezekiel 41:14

  And the width of the front of the house and of the separate area toward the east, a hundred cubits.

• Ezekiel 42:9

  And below these chambers was the entrance from the east, as one goes in to them from the outer court.

• Ezekiel 42:10

  In the width of the fence of the court, toward the east, in front of the separate area and in front of the building, there were chambers.

• Ezekiel 42:12

  And according to the entrances of the chambers that were toward the south there was an entrance at the head of the way, the way in front of the corresponding fence, toward the east, as one enters them.

• Ezekiel 42:15

  And he finished the measurements of the inner house, and he brought me out by the way of the gate that faced toward the east, and he measured it all around.

• Ezekiel 42:16

  He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds with the measuring reed all around.

• Ezekiel 43:1

  And he led me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east.

• Ezekiel 43:2

  And look, the glory of the Elohim of Israel was coming from the way of the east; and his sound was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory.

• Ezekiel 43:4

  And the glory of YHWH came into the house by way of the gate that faced toward the east.

• Ezekiel 43:17

  And the ledge, fourteen long by fourteen wide, on its four sides; and the border around it, half a cubit, and its base a cubit all around; and its steps face east.”

• Ezekiel 44:1

  And he brought me back by way of the outer gate of the sanctuary that faces east; and it was shut.

• Ezekiel 45:7

  And to the chief shall belong land on one side and on the other of the holy contribution and of the possession of the city, facing the holy contribution and facing the possession of the city, from the side of the sea toward the sea and from the side of the east toward the east, and its length corresponding to one of the portions, from the border of the sea to the border of the east.

• Ezekiel 46:1

  “Thus says Adonai YHWH: The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut the six days of work, but on the day of the Sabbath it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened.

• Ezekiel 46:12

  And when the chief makes a freewill offering, a burnt offering or peace offerings, as a freewill offering to YHWH, one shall open for him the gate that faces east, and he shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings as he does on the day of the Sabbath; then he shall go out, and one shall shut the gate after he goes out.

• Ezekiel 47:1

  And he brought me back to the entrance of the house, and look, water was coming out from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the front of the house faced east; and the water was going down from under the right side of the house, south of the altar.

• Ezekiel 47:2

  And he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around by way of the outside to the outer gate by way of the one that faces east; and look, water was trickling out from the right side.

• Ezekiel 47:3

  When the man went out eastward with a line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water, water to the ankles.

And 29 more times.