A storm or whirlwind may describe a dangerous sea, the setting of a narrated departure or vision, a place from which the Lord answers and a poetic image of threat or rescue. Kings recounts Elijah taken up in a whirlwind.
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Reader summary
Full entry for סַעַר (H5591) · Open the biblical lexicon
A storm or whirlwind may describe a dangerous sea, the setting of a narrated departure or vision, a place from which the LORD answers and a poetic image of threat or rescue. Kings recounts Elijah taken up in a whirlwind.
The BSB source-word alignment has 24 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (4), storm (3), the storm (3), in a whirlwind (2), the whirlwind (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 2 Kings 2:1. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (5), Psalms (5), Ezekiel (3), Isaiah (3).
A storm or whirlwind may describe a dangerous sea, the setting of a narrated departure or vision, a place from which the Lord answers and a poetic image of threat or rescue. Kings recounts Elijah taken up in a whirlwind. Ezekiel sees a stormy wind in his opening vision. Job receives the Lord's answer from the whirlwind, while Jonah's account identifies the Lord as sending the sea storm.
Psalm 55's distressed speaker longs for shelter from the storm, and Psalm 107 narrates seafarers crying out before the Lord calms it. These passages do not make every storm a verdict on its victims or promise every difficulty an immediate calm. Read the account's stated agency without extending it to events the passage does not identify. A congregation can pray, hear fear and seek practical shelter without reproducing Jonah's dangerous actions or treating weather as a diagnostic test of faith.
Elijah's departure, Ezekiel's vision, Job's divine answer, Jonah's sea danger and two psalmic settings keep storm language in distinct accounts. The image cannot independently diagnose guilt or promise a timetable for relief.
As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire with horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind.
Elijah goes up in a whirlwind after the chariot and horses of fire separate the two men.
I looked and saw a whirlwind coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire was a gleam like amber,
The prophet sees a stormy wind from the north within the opening description of his particular vision.
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
The Lord answers Job from the whirlwind, beginning the questions that follow his disputation.
Then the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship was in danger of breaking apart.
The narrator attributes the great sea storm to the Lord within Jonah's particular flight account.
I would hurry to my shelter, far from this raging tempest.”
The distressed speaker longs to hurry to shelter from the raging storm within his petition about threat.
He calmed the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
The Lord stills the storm in the seafarers' narrated cry and rescue sequence, calming its waves.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Violent, chaotic wind representing divine judgment or power; often depicts God's overwhelming presence
Violent, chaotic wind representing divine judgment or power; often depicts God's overwhelming presence
a hurricane BDB: tempest Usage: storm(-y), tempest, whirlwind.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 26 lexical occurrence verses.
סַעַר is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The storm's role changes with the account in which it appears. Elijah's whirlwind accompanies his narrated departure; Ezekiel's stormy wind belongs to his vision; Job's whirlwind introduces the Lord's answer and questions. Jonah explicitly names the Lord's agency in a particular account of flight, but that stated agency cannot become a diagnosis of every present storm or its victims.
Psalm 55's speaker longs for shelter amid threat. Psalm 107 narrates seafarers crying out and the Lord calming the storm before their thanksgiving. Teaching should keep these movements visible instead of turning the weather word into a universal formula. A congregation can acknowledge fear, pray for help and provide ordinary shelter without blaming endangered people.
Mark's account of Jesus calming a storm deserves its own reading, including the disciples' fear and question about Him. None of these passages commissions throwing someone into danger or promises that every sufferer will experience the same immediate outcome.
Ps.107.29
Storm and whirlwind renderings follow the noun's constructions and narrated settings. Twenty-four local BSB tokens in twenty-two verses remain distinct from canonical twenty-six; the artifact identity and transliteration stay unchanged, and the denominator difference does not authorize retagging either source.
Mark 4:35-41 narrates Jesus calming the wind and sea, the disciples' fear and His question about their faith, followed by their question about who He is. This is a canonical storm comparison, not an occurrence of the Hebrew noun or a promise that every present difficulty receives an identical immediate outcome.