“The east wind is a destructive wind which originates in the east, the symbolic direction of Deity’s presence. Also called ‘the wind of the Lord’ (Hosea 13:15), it is ‘prepared’ by God (Jonah 4:8) for the purpose of destroying the ungodly and unrighteous” (McConkie and Parry, Guide to Scriptural Symbols, 45). The phrase is used only twice in the Book of Mormon, but both references seem consistent with this symbolic biblical usage (see Mosiah 7:31; 12:6).