Amsal 14:13

14:13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, ¹ 

and the end ²  of joy may be ³  grief.

Amsal 18:14

18:14 A person’s spirit ⁴  sustains him through sickness –

but who can bear ⁵  a crushed spirit? ⁶ 

Amsal 27:3

27:3 A stone is heavy and sand is weighty,

but vexation ⁷  by a fool is more burdensome ⁸  than the two of them.

Amsal 29:20

29:20 Do you see someone ⁹  who is hasty in his words? ¹⁰ 

There is more hope for a fool than for him. ¹¹ 

[14:13]  ¹ sn No joy is completely free of grief. There is a joy that is superficial and there is underlying pain that will remain after the joy is gone.

[14:13]  ² tn Heb “and its end, joy, is grief.” The suffix may be regarded as an Aramaism, a proleptic suffix referring to “joy.”

[14:13]  ³ tn The phrase “may be” is not in the Hebrew but is supplied from the parallelism, which features an imperfect of possibility.

[18:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “the spirit of a man.” Because the verb of this clause is a masculine form, some have translated this line as “with spirit a man sustains,” but that is an unnecessary change.

[18:14]  ⁵ sn This is a rhetorical question, asserting that very few can cope with depression.

[18:14]  ⁶ sn The figure of a “crushed spirit” (ASV, NAB, NCV, NRSV “a broken spirit,” comparing depression to something smashed or crushed) suggests a broken will, a loss of vitality, despair, and emotional pain. In physical sickness one can fall back on the will to live; but in depression even the will to live is gone.

[27:3]  ⁷ tn The subject matter is the vexation produced by a fool. The term כַּעַס (ca’as) means “vexation” (ASV); provocation” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); “anger” (KJV “wrath”) and usually refers to undeserved treatment. Cf. NLT “the resentment caused by a fool.”

[27:3]  sn The same noun is used in 1 Sam 1:6, 16 for the “provocation” given to Hannah by Peninnah for being barren.

[27:3]  ⁸ sn The contrast is made between dealing with the vexation of a fool and physical labor (moving stones and sand). More tiring is the vexation of a fool, for the mental and emotional effort it takes to deal with it is more draining than physical labor. It is, in the sense of this passage, almost unbearable.

[29:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “a man,” but there is no indication in the immediate context that this should be limited only to males.

[29:20]  ¹⁰ sn The focus of this proverb is on someone who is hasty in his words. This is the person who does not stop to think, but acts on the spur of the moment. To speak before thinking is foolishness.

[29:20]  ¹¹ sn Rash speech cannot easily be remedied. The prospects for a fool are better (e.g., Prov 26:12).