“The twisting of the nose draws blood”
For as the churning of milk yields butter, and the twisting of the nose draws blood, so the stirring of anger brings forth strife. (Proverbs 30:33 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A random, slightly gross line about a bloody nose.
The cultural key
In English this reads like an odd aside about nosebleeds. In Hebrew it is a tightly built pun that a translation cannot fully carry. A single verb, mits, meaning to press, squeeze, or wring, governs all three clauses: press milk and you get curds; press (twist) the nose and you get blood; press anger and you get strife. On top of that, the Hebrew word for 'nose,' aph, is the identical word used for 'anger' (the nose being where hot breath flares in rage). So 'the twisting of the aph draws blood' and 'the stirring of the aph brings forth strife' are, quite literally, the same words, the physical squeezing of the nose and the emotional squeezing of anger fused in one term. The proverb's logic is inevitable, like cause and effect: keep pressing, and something bursts. Squeeze milk, blood, or wrath, and each yields its predictable product. The whole point is a wordplay on pressing and on nose-as-anger that only the Hebrew makes visible.
Recovered meaning
The proverb is a Hebrew double pun: one verb 'press' links churning milk, twisting the nose, and stirring anger, while the word for 'nose' is the same as the word for 'anger.' Keep pressing and each yields its result, so provoking wrath inevitably produces strife.