The north wind driveth away rain: so [doth] an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.
Ver. 23. The north wind drives away rain.] Hence Homer calls it αιθρηγενουτην, the fair weather maker, and Jerome the air's besom. There is a southerly wind that attracts clouds and engenders rain. a
So doth an angry countenance, a backbiting tongue.] The ready way to be rid of tale bearers is to browbeat them; for like whelps, if we stroke them they leap upon us and defile us with fawning; but give them a rap and they are gone; so here. Carry, therefore, in this case, a severe rebuke in thy countenance, as God doth Psa 80:16 Be not a resetter to these privy thieves, a receptacle for these mures nominis, as one calls them; the tale hearer is as blameworthy as the tale bearer, and he that "loves" a lie as he that "makes" it Rev 22:15 Psa 15:3 Rom 1:31
a Caecias nubes attrahit.