*And when you come to a fork in the road, take it.* :)
Posted on 04/25/2020 4:30:08 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue” (Proverbs 25:23).
“The north wind driveth away rain,” that’s the cold wind. When you have a north wind, it gets cold. You don't have any rain, but you might have ice and snow, but you don’t get any rain.
“. . . so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue,” here is the time to be angry, I guess, what it is here, is somebody is gossiping to you or in front of you and you want to stop it. Immediately you show a countenance that does not accept it, that shows its disapproval. The Bible says, “be angry and sin not” (Ephesians 4:26). Now, here's a good time to be angry.
“But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:22).
Christ spoke of being angry “without a cause,” well, here is a good cause. This is the proper time.
The new versions have taken “without a cause” from the corrupted Bibles and so they turn Jesus Christ into a sinner because He definitely became angry with the money changers in the temple, but he also had a cause. Well, no matter, the new versions condemn any kind of anger.
“The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance,” I mean, somebody starts backbiting the preacher, or is backbiting your brother or sister in Christ; you show anger, “I don't want to hear that! That's not right! You got a problem with them? you go to them.” You won't hear much more from them on this issue.
“. . . so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue,” anger is good when someone criticizes a person not present. Get indignant! Tell the person to stop running others down. Tell the person to take up their attack with the party directly. Tell them, if they cannot say something good, then not to say anything at all.
But now, don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Don't stay angry. Let them take care of their problem on their own. That’s between them and God. You’ve done all you can do. So, it’s time to get let it go, unless they approach you on the subject again. They probably won’t.
Most commentators violently pervert these words of God, much like the serpent in Eden, by making the first clause read: “The north wind brings forth rain.” But even a child can know they are wrong, by a simple comparison with the parallelism of the second clause. Does an angry countenance bring forth backbiting, or drive it away? Let God be true!
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This was an interesting trail, off the beaten path as it were:
KJV Proverbs 25:23 The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.
JPS 25.23 The north wind bringeth forth rain, And a backbiting tongue an angry countenance.
In looking at the expanded definitions and nuances of the verb translated with opposite meanings, I can see how turning or twisting could be viewed as rain turned away (driven back), or as a bringing forth, the churning of the weather, like a nor'easter.
Meanwhile it's all calm in the eye of the storm, the hub as it were.
The subject of this north wind drove me over to
In Greek mythology the Hyperboreans (Ancient Greek: Ὑπερβόρε(ι)οι, pronounced [hyperbóre(ː)ɔi̯]; Latin: Hyperborei) were a race of giants who lived "beyond the North Wind". The Greeks thought that Boreas, the god of the North Wind (one of the Anemoi, or "Winds") lived in Thrace, and therefore Hyperborea indicates that it is a region beyond Thrace.
This land was supposed to be perfect, with the sun shining twenty-four hours a day, which to modern ears suggests a possible location within the Arctic Circle during the midnight sun-time of year. It is also possible that Hyperborea had no real physical location at all, for according to the classical Greek poet Pindar, "neither by ship nor on foot would you find the marvellous road to the assembly of the Hyperboreans."
Pindar also described the otherworldly perfection of the Hyperboreans:Never the Muse is absent
from their ways: lyres clash and flutes cry
and everywhere maiden choruses whirling.
Neither disease nor bitter old age is mixed
in their sacred blood; far from labor and battle they live.[1]
Follow the trail to Thrace and there's a word play on the principle river : Ebros/Hebrews. Compare the info there to "Hebrew" ("from beyond") and that Europe is the western land, which is a word play on the same Hebrew letters, transposed. "Hebrew" from the name Eber [עבר], or "erev" [ערב] - erev "evening" from which the word meaning west [מערב, ma'arav] is derived (toward the setting sun).
I note this for a sense of fullness in order to back up to the simple yet elusive location of this wonderful, perfect mystery land that is beyond the north wind:
It's the place above the fray.
Which loops right back to the whirling/churning verb translated with opposite meanings. Depends on perspective. For example, looking down it's "lefty loosey righty tighty", but in looking up it's just the opposite. What's the diff when viewed from "Hyperborea" -- the land above Borea, above the tempestuous man who is the personification of the north wind.
On a related note, you've got turkeys named "Indian" because Columbus was sailing west in order to go east. Everybody knows that India (Hodu) is really the New World, more specifically America. What gets discovered, in the Age of Discovery (revelation)! Like the Megillah (Book of Esther, EST) with the double meaning of "revealing the hidden". In America. 127 days of darkness (standard time, non leap years), and 238 days of DST.
"And there was light" (Gen 1:3) = 238.
1.4. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness: = 1776
"neither by ship nor on foot would you find the marvellous road to the assembly of the Hyperboreans."
Correct, because "Where we're going we don't need roads."
Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
"Never boring, always surprising!" It's always something. :)
*And when you come to a fork in the road, take it.* :)
That would be the Ys thing to do.
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