What Does Proverbs 24:17 Mean?

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart leap when he stumbles.

Proverbs 24:17 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:

THE KEY

The verse names two forms of joy because another person’s fall can draw both gladness and inward exultation from the heart.

THE MEANING

When someone who opposes you falters, their collapse does not make delight in it harmless. The verse reaches from the first glad response to the exultation the heart welcomes.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie is: “Because this person is my enemy, their failure is automatically good news.” Their fall does not make delight in it harmless.

THE ROOT

תִּשְׂמָח

tismaḥ

GROWS FROM

שׂמח

ś-m-ḥ

Be glad; rejoice.

“rejoice” in this verse is tismaḥ. The root’s family includes ⁨שִׂמְחָה⁩ (simḥāh), joy itself, so the verse addresses an inward state as well as an outward reaction. The next clause uses a different root for joy, extending the warning beyond one form of delight.

ALSO GROWS

simḥāh: Joy, gladness

שִׂמְחָה

The noun makes clear that the warning reaches the gladness itself, not only its expression.

sameaḥ: Glad, joyful

שָׂמֵחַ

This adjective carries the same root into a description of someone’s inward state.

יָגֵל

yagel

GROWS FROM

גיל

g-y-l

Exult, rejoice.

“leap” in this verse is yagel. The second clause does not repeat ⁨שׂמח⁩ (ś-m-ḥ); it uses ⁨גיל⁩ (g-y-l), another root for rejoicing, often with the force of exulting. The paired roots widen the warning from being pleased at the fall to celebrating it inwardly.

ALSO GROWS

gīl: Rejoicing, exultation

גִּיל

This noun names the exultant joy that the second clause keeps from taking hold.

gīlāh: Gladness, joy

גִּילָה

This related form shows the root’s reach into the state of gladness, not just a single burst of celebration.

THE PATTERN

Another person’s misfortune does not become rightful fuel for your joy.

Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker, and he who is glad at calamities does not come away clear.

Proverbs 17:5 · SDVLike the present verse, it treats delight in another person’s hardship as something with consequences.

If I have rejoiced at the ruin of the one who hates me, or stirred myself when evil reached him;

Job 31:29 · SDVJob names rejoicing at an enemy’s destruction as a revealing test of the heart.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

Romans 12:15 · SDVIt frames joy as shared with others, rather than taken from their suffering.

THE THREAD

Lest the LORD see it, and it be evil in his eyes, and he return the burning of his anger from him.

Proverbs 24:18 · SDV

The next verse says the LORD sees this delight and is displeased, then turns his anger away from the person who fell. Their collapse does not settle their standing; the response in your heart remains visible and can reverse what you expect to happen.

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