What Does Proverbs 18:14 Mean?
The breath of a man will hold up his sickness, but a struck breath, who can lift 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
The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?THE KEY
The same רוּחַ (ruach, breath/spirit) can sustain bodily weakness, yet when that inner life is struck down, who can carry it?
THE MEANING
Your inward life sustains you through bodily weakness. But when that same inner life is wounded, struck down, the verse asks who can carry the burden. It leaves that question open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that inward strength is an endless reserve: when the spirit itself is struck, the question of who can bear that wound remains.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוּחַ
r-w-ḥ
Wind or moving air; breath, and the inner spirit.
Hebrew uses one word for wind, breath, and spirit; English divides them into separate categories. Both halves turn on the same ruach: one can support bodily infirmity, while the other can be struck down.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Moving air.
רוּחַ
The same word rendered “spirit” can mean wind, giving the verse’s inner life a sense of unseen force.
ruach: The breath of life.
רוּחַ
English separates breathing from inward life; Hebrew holds them together in this one word.
נְכֵאָה
neke'ah
GROWS FROM
נָכָה
n-k-h
To strike, smite, or wound.
The word translated “wounded” comes from the verb for striking or smiting. The verse pictures the spirit as struck, and lets the question of who can carry it stand.
ALSO GROWS
nakah: To strike or deal a blow.
נָכָה
This root makes the spirit’s wound concrete: it has been struck down.
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
This related word echoes the force of a blow in the description of the wounded spirit.
יִשָּׂאֶנָּה
yissa'ennah
GROWS FROM
נָשָׂא
n-ś-ʾ
To lift, carry, or take up.
The final verb means to lift or carry. The verse ends by asking who can take up the burden of a spirit that has itself been struck down.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: To lift, carry, or take up.
נָשָׂא
This is the verb behind “bear,” making the verse’s final question one of who can carry the wounded spirit.
massa: A burden or load.
מַשָּׂא
The related word for a burden gives shape to what the final verb asks someone to carry.
THE PATTERN
The condition of the inner life can sustain bodily weakness or deepen its effects.
The LORD is near to those whose heart is broken, and delivers those crushed in breath.Therefore we do not give out; though our outer person is worn through, yet our inner person is made new day after day.THE THREAD
The LORD is near to those whose heart is broken, and delivers those crushed in breath.The same Hebrew word רוּחַ (ruach, breath/spirit) appears in both verses. Proverbs asks who can bear a wounded spirit; Psalm 34 answers with the image of the LORD near to the contrite spirit.
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