NOSE, NOSTRIL3 (noz, nos'trds), (Heb.73, af; dual 0-.111, aft-pah-yeenz', properly, breathing place, Num. xi:2o). The Hebrews commonly place the seat of anger in the nose; since the effect of anger is often hard breathing, and in animals, snorting. "There went up a smoke out of his nostrils' (2 Sam. xxii:o; Ps. xviii:8).
Figurative. (I) "Lo, they put the branch to their nose" (Ezek. viii :17) appears to be a pro verbial expression variously interpreted. Some understand it as the barsam, which the Pharisees held in their hand while praying, or rather in front of the mouth as a magical mode of driving demons away. Two other explanations may be given—that it is a proverbial expression, "to apply the twig to anger," in the sense of adding fuel to the fire. The second, that of Hitzig, "They apply the sickle to their nose," i. e., by seeking to in jure me thcy injure themselves (Keil, Com., in loc.).
(2) The words "they take away thy nose and ears" (Ezek. xxiii :25) are not to be interpreted, as the earlier expositors suppose, from the custom prevalent among the Egyptians and other nations of cutting off the nose of an adukeress, but de pict, by one particular example, the mutilation of prisoners oaptured by their enemies.
(3) As the Hebrews employed the term sig nifying nose to denote anger, "nose" and "nos trils," ascribed to God, denote his discernmervt of provocation, and his wrath to be executed on ac count thereof (Exod. xv :8 ; Ps. xviii :8; Is lxv:5).
"The anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man" (Deut. xxix :20). "Out of his nostrils goeth smoke ' (Job xli :20). Camels and oxen were managed by iron rings in their nostrils, and thereto the allusion is made (2 Kings xix:28; COmp. Job xli :2 ; IS. xxxvii:29).