What Does Proverbs 12:25 Mean?
Heaviness in the heart of a man bows it down, but a good word gladdens it.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.THE KEY
The same heart anxiety bends downward is the heart a good word can make glad.
THE MEANING
Anxiety presses your heart downward, while a good word can make that same heart glad. The verse holds both as real forces now: what occupies the heart can weigh it down, and what reaches it in speech can shift its inner state.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A heavy heart is not sealed inside its heaviness: a good word can reach it and bring gladness.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a word, matter, or thing.
Davar can mean both a spoken word and a matter or thing. The verse presents the good word as something that reaches the heart with real effect, not as empty sound.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This is the word in the verse: what is spoken is also something that acts upon the heart.
dibber: To speak or say.
דִּבֵּר
The verbal branch links the word that gladdens the heart to the act of speaking.
יְשַׂמְּחֶנָּה
yesamchennah
GROWS FROM
שמח
To rejoice; in the intensive form, to make glad.
“gladdens it” in this verse is yesamchennah. The verb comes from the root for rejoicing and uses a form that makes glad. The good word does not merely describe a happy heart; it brings the heart into gladness.
ALSO GROWS
samach: To rejoice.
שָׂמַח
The heart’s gladness belongs to the same root as rejoicing.
simchah: Joy or gladness.
שִׂמְחָה
This noun names the state the good word brings about.
simmeach: To gladden or make glad.
שִׂמֵּחַ
This form echoes the verse’s active claim that the word causes gladness.
דְּאָגָה
de'agah
GROWS FROM
דאג
To be anxious, care, or be concerned.
The Hebrew word translated “heaviness” names anxiety or care. The heart is pressed down by what fills it with concern, then met by a word that can move it toward gladness.
ALSO GROWS
da'ag: To be anxious or take thought.
דָּאַג
The verb shows the anxious concern contained in the noun translated “heaviness.”
yid'ag: He will be anxious or care.
יִדְאַג
This form shows anxiety as an inner state a person undergoes, rather than the heart’s permanent nature.
THE PATTERN
Words act upon the inner life: a timely good word can bring gladness, healing, and strength.
A man has joy in the answer of his mouth, and a word in its season, how good it is!He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.Let no rotten word come out of your mouth, but whatever is good for building up where there is need, that it may give favor to those who hear.THE THREAD
And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart.The Hebrew word for “words” here, debarim, comes from the same root as davar in Proverbs. Deuteronomy places words in the heart; Proverbs shows a good word acting on that heart and changing how it feels.
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