What Does Proverbs 25:23 Mean?
The breath of the north brings forth rain; so a stormy face brings forth a hidden tongue.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.THE KEY
The verse makes an angry face the north wind that scatters a tongue speaking in secret.
THE MEANING
A concealed tongue meets the force of an openly angry face, and its speech is scattered. The weather image gives that response a shape: the north wind drives away the rain that has gathered overhead.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that speech spoken in secret can keep its power untouched: an openly angry face can disperse it.
THE ROOT
סֵתֶר
sēter
GROWS FROM
סתר
s-t-r
hide, conceal, keep out of sight
“hidden” in this verse is sēter. The Hebrew phrase is a “tongue of secrecy,” so the verse foregrounds speech operating under cover. This root also names a hiding place, where hiddenness can mean refuge rather than harm.
ALSO GROWS
sātar: to hide or conceal
סָתַר
The verb names the act of keeping something out of sight, the condition of the tongue in this verse.
histīr: he hid or concealed
הִסְתִּיר
This form makes concealment an action, sharpening the sense of speech kept from view.
צָפוֹן
tsafon
GROWS FROM
צפן
ts-p-n
hide, store away, treasure up
The Hebrew word for north comes from a root of hiding or storing away, so both the wind and the tongue carry a shade of concealment. The wind gives that hidden force an open form as it scatters what has gathered.
ALSO GROWS
tsāfan: to hide, store, or treasure up
צָפַן
This verb supplies the hidden or stored-away sense carried by the word for north.
tsāfūn: hidden or stored away
צָפוּן
This related form makes the root’s concealed quality plain beside the image of the north wind.
THE PATTERN
Speech kept in secret still takes form and reaches beyond its cover, where it can be answered or exposed.
Whoever tongue-lashes his neighbor in hiding, him I will cut off; the one with lifted eyes and a broad heart, him I cannot bear.Do not curse the king, even in your knowledge, and do not curse the rich in the inner chambers of your bed, for the bird of the heavens carries the voice, and the winged one tells the word.A good human brings out good from the good treasure of the heart, and an evil human brings out evil from the evil treasure of the heart, for from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.THE THREAD
You are my hiding place. You guard me from the narrow place, and you circle me with songs of escape. Selah.The hiddenness in Proverbs shares its root with the word translated “hiding place” here. The same root turns in two directions: secrecy can shelter harmful speech, while a hiding place can also mean refuge from trouble.
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