23The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.
Linguistic Insight
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Cross-References
From the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.
Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God is terrible majesty.
He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:
Commentary
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Bible (1710)
(vv. 23)Here see, 1. How we must discourage sin and witness against it, and particularly the sin of slandering and backbiting; we must frown upon it, and, by giving it an angry countenance, endeavour to put it out of countenance. Slanders would not be so readily spoken as they are if they were not readily heard; but good manners would silence the slanderer if he saw that his tales displeased the company.…
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