BLAST, BLASTING (scorching) (שָׁדַף, H8728, שְׁדֵפָה, H8729, שִׁדָּפﯴן, H8730). The Kethibh contains four words so tr., but one of them (Isa 37:27) is shown by comparison with a parallel to 2 Kings 19:26 and evidence of the great DSIsa scroll to be a misspelling for one of the other four, by change of one letter. The three words, one a verb and two other words derived from it, refer essentially to the scorched blight effected by the sirocco, a hot wind which, coming off the deserts of Africa and Arabia periodically, is exceedingly destructive of all plant life, very harmful to all types of wooden buildings and artifacts as well as to all animal and human life. In Egypt a similar blast is called Chamsin, and sometimes the word is used inaccurately for the sirocco of Pal. These winds are from the E and S in Pal., but not necessarily so in Egypt. Their blasting effect on plant life is set forth (Gen 41:6, 23, 27; 1 Kings 8:37; 2 Kings 19:26; Deut 28:22; 2 Chron 6:28; Isa 37:27; Amos 4:9; Hag 2:17). See also references to “east wind” and “south wind,” Job 37:16, 17; Psalm 103:16; Isaiah 27:8; 40:6-8; Jeremiah 4:11; Ezekiel 17:10; Hosea 12:1; 13:15; Jonah 4:8; Luke 12:55; James 1:11. Denis Baly (The Geography of the Bible, New York [1957]) devotes eight columns (pp. 67-70) to this scorching wind, and George Adam Smith (Historical Geography of the Holy Land, New York [1897]) devotes pages 67-73 of his famous work to it, including interesting excerpts from his diary.