An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters…

Further, it is considerable, that the word nostril, is put alone, for the wrath of God: Psal. 95. 11. He sware in his nostril, that ¹is (as we translate it) he sware in his wrath, that they should not enter into his rest. Likewise Psal. 2. 12. If his wrath be kindled but a little; the Hebrew is, if his nose or nostril be kindled but a little; the nostril, being an organ of the body, in which wrath shows it self, is put for wrath it self. Paleness and snuffing of the nose, are symptoms of anger. In our broverbials, to take a thing in snuff, is to take it in anger. Again, in Scripture we find, that slowness to anger, and hastiness to be angry, are expressed by the different frame of the nostrils; as namely, when the Lord is said to be slow to anger, the Hebrew is long of nostrils: (Psal. ²103. 8.) The Lord is slow to anger, or, (Exod. 34. 6.) Long-suffering. In both places, the Original is, long of nostrils, that is, of anger, or long ere he be angry. On the other side, a passionate, choleric man, a man ready to conceive anger, is said to have a strait or a short nostril; He that is soon angry, dealeth foolishly, Prov. 14. 17. The Hebrew is, he that hath a short or a narrow nostril, ³dealeth foolishly, because such men are most apt to conceive anger; So then, while Eliphaz saith, by the breath of his nostrils they are consumed, it is, as if he had said, by the wrath and displeasure of God they are consumed; and the Septuagint translate it, directly by anger, They are consumed by the breath, or spirit of his anger; so others in the Latin, They are consumed by the spirit of his fury. And both these words, breath and blast, are found together in one place,