reap the whirlwind suffer serious consequences as a result of your actions.

☞ This expression alludes to the proverb they that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind, which is taken from Hosea 8:7. Probably the most celebrated (or some would say notorious) instance of its use was by Air Chief Marshal Arthur 'Bomber' Harris, head of RAF Bomber Command, in 1942, commenting on the aerial bombardment of German cities: 'The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everybody else and nobody was going to bomb them … . They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.'

2012The Age (Melbourne) The ALP government created this disaster with cheap populist politics when it dismantled the Pacific Solution with much fanfare and cheering. Now they are reaping the whirlwind in lost lives and human misery.