Amsal 14:10

14:10 The heart knows its own bitterness, ¹ 

and with its joy no one else ²  can share. ³ 

Amsal 18:14

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

but who can bear ⁵  a crushed spirit? ⁶ 

[14:10]  ¹ tn Heb “bitterness of its soul.”

[14:10]  ² tn Heb “stranger” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[14:10]  ³ tn The verb is the Hitpael of II עָרַב (’arav), which means “to take in pledge; to give in pledge; to exchange.” Here it means “to share [in].” The proverb is saying that there are joys and sorrows that cannot be shared. No one can truly understand the deepest feelings of another.

[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.