What Does Proverbs 15:13 Mean?
A glad heart makes the face good, but by the pain of the heart the breath is crushed.
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
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.THE KEY
Gladness brightens the face, while heart-sorrow presses down the ruach, the breath, wind, and spirit moving through a person.
THE MEANING
Gladness within you brightens your face; grief in your heart can press down your ruach, the breath and spirit moving through you. The verse treats inner feeling as embodied: it shows in the countenance and touches your vitality.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that grief is only private thought, with no visible or bodily effect.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
rûaḥ
GROWS FROM
רוח
To blow or breathe.
“breath is crushed” in this verse is rûaḥ. The KJV’s “spirit” is ruach, a Hebrew word that also means wind and breath. The verse describes sorrow as pressing down a person’s inward vitality, not merely darkening a private thought.
ALSO GROWS
rûaḥ: Wind
רוּחַ
The same word names moving air, keeping movement and force within the verse’s image of a broken spirit.
rûaḥ: Breath
רוּחַ
The word also names breath, bringing the spirit’s brokenness close to bodily vitality.
שָׂמֵחַ
śāmēaḥ
GROWS FROM
שׂמח
To rejoice, be glad.
“glad” in this verse is śāmēaḥ. The word translated “merry” grows from the same root as the verb “rejoice” and the noun “joy.” The verse presents gladness as something alive within the heart that becomes visible in the face.
ALSO GROWS
śāmaḥ: Rejoice, be glad
שָׂמַח
The verb shares the root of “merry,” showing that the heart’s gladness is active rejoicing.
śimḥāh: Joy, gladness
שִׂמְחָה
The noun names the joy contained in the adjective “merry,” linking inner feeling to its outward effect.
עַצֶּבֶת
ʿatzevet
GROWS FROM
עצב
To feel pain or grieve.
“the pain” in this verse is ʿatzevet. This sorrow comes from a root that can name grief as an action and pain as a condition. The verse places that hurt in the heart and shows it pressing down the ruach.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāṣav: Grieve, feel pain
עָצַב
The verb shows sorrow as pain being experienced, rather than an abstract idea.
ʿeṣev: Pain, sorrow
עֶצֶב
This noun shares the root and makes the hurt within “sorrow of the heart” more tangible.
THE PATTERN
What is carried within becomes visible in a person’s expression and reaches the body’s lived condition.
And the LORD said to Cain, Why do you burn? And why has your face fallen?A good human brings out good from the good treasure of the heart, and an evil human brings out evil from the evil treasure of the heart, for from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.THE THREAD
Therefore my heart is glad, and my weight leaps; my flesh also settles in leaning.The word “glad” shares the שׂמח root with “merry” in Proverbs 15:13. Psalm 16:9 links that heart-gladness to the body resting, opening the same whole-person movement from inward feeling to embodied life.
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