Proverbs 25:23 (BSB)

As the north wind brings forth rain, so a backbiting tongue brings angry looks.

From Proverbs 25. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 25:23

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 25:23: 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...
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 25:23: The north wind driveth away rain,.... So the geographer (w) says, the swift north wind drives away the moist clouds; which usually come from the opposite quarter, the south. The word used has the signification of conceiving, and begetting, and bringing forth; hence some (x) render it to a different sense, and so the Targum, "the north wind bringeth forth rain;'' and in this sense...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 25:23: Better, "As the north wind bringeth forth (Psa 90:2) or produces rain, so does a concealed or slandering tongue produce anger."
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 25:23: Pro 25:23 The next group of proverbs extends from Pro 25:23 to Pro 25:28. 23 Wind from the north produceth rain; And a secret tongue a troubled countenance. The north is called צפון, from צפן, to conceal, from the firmament darkening itself for a longer time, and more easily, like the old Persian apâkhtara, as (so it appears) the starless, and, like aquilo, the north...