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Easy-to-Read Version

Proverbs 14:10

When you are sad, no one else feels the pain; and when you are happy, no one else can really feel the joy.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Contentment;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Heart;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Hardening, Hardness of Heart;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Heart;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Grief;   Intermeddle;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Heart;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The heart knows its own bitterness,and no outsider shares in its joy.
Hebrew Names Version
The heart knows its own bitterness and joy; He will not share these with a stranger.
King James Version
The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.
English Standard Version
The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.
New American Standard Bible
The heart knows its own bitterness, And a stranger does not share its joy.
New Century Version
No one else can know your sadness, and strangers cannot share your joy.
New English Translation
The heart knows its own bitterness, and with its joy no one else can share.
Amplified Bible
The heart knows its own bitterness, And no stranger shares its joy.
World English Bible
The heart knows its own bitterness and joy; He will not share these with a stranger.
Geneva Bible (1587)
The heart knoweth the bitternes of his soule, & the stranger shall not medle with his ioy.
Legacy Standard Bible
The heart knows its own bitterness,And a stranger does not share its gladness.
Berean Standard Bible
The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares in its joy.
Contemporary English Version
No one else can really know how sad or happy you are.
Complete Jewish Bible
The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger can share its joy.
Darby Translation
The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy.
George Lamsa Translation
Fools commit sins; but the children of the upright have good will.
Good News Translation
Your joy is your own; your bitterness is your own. No one can share them with you.
Lexham English Bible
The heart knows the bitterness of its soul, but in its joy, it will not share itself with a stranger.
Literal Translation
The heart knows the bitterness of its soul, and a stranger does not mix in its joy.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The herte of him that hath vnderstondinge wil nether dispare for eny sorow, ner be to presumptuous for eny sodane ioye.
American Standard Version
The heart knoweth its own bitterness; And a stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy.
Bible in Basic English
No one has knowledge of a man's grief but himself; and a strange person has no part in his joy.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
The heart knoweth its own bitterness; and with its joy no stranger can intermeddle.
King James Version (1611)
The heart knoweth his owne bitternesse; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his ioy.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The heart knoweth his owne soules bitternesse: and the straunger shall not be partaker of his ioy.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
If a man’s mind is intelligent, his soul is sorrowful; and when he rejoices, he has no fellowship with pride.
English Revised Version
The heart knoweth its own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The herte that knowith the bittirnesse of his soule; a straunger schal not be meddlid in the ioie therof.
Update Bible Version
The heart knows its own bitterness; And a stranger does not intermeddle with its joy.
Webster's Bible Translation
The heart knoweth its own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy.
New King James Version
The heart knows its own bitterness, And a stranger does not share its joy.
New Living Translation
Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can fully share its joy.
New Life Bible
The heart knows when it is bitter, and a stranger cannot share its joy.
New Revised Standard
The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
The heart, knoweth its own bitterness, and, in its joy, no stranger shareth.
Douay-Rheims Bible
The heart that knoweth the bitterness of his own soul, in his joy the stranger shall not intermeddle.
Revised Standard Version
The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.
Young's Literal Translation
The heart knoweth its own bitterness, And with its joy a stranger doth not intermeddle.
THE MESSAGE
The person who shuns the bitter moments of friends will be an outsider at their celebrations.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
The heart knows its own bitterness, And a stranger does not share its joy.

Contextual Overview

10 When you are sad, no one else feels the pain; and when you are happy, no one else can really feel the joy.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

heart: Proverbs 15:13, Proverbs 18:14, 1 Samuel 1:10, 2 Kings 4:27, Job 6:2-4, Job 7:11, Job 9:18, Job 10:1, Ezekiel 3:14, Mark 14:33, Mark 14:34, John 12:27

his: etc. Heb. the bitterness of his soul, Genesis 42:21

and: Psalms 25:14, John 14:18, John 14:23, Philippians 4:7, 1 Peter 1:8, Revelation 2:17

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 8:38 - the plague 2 Chronicles 6:29 - know Job 21:25 - in the bitterness Proverbs 3:32 - his Proverbs 12:25 - Heaviness Proverbs 14:14 - a good John 4:32 - that John 14:17 - whom 1 Corinthians 2:11 - what

Cross-References

Genesis 11:3
Then they said to each other, "Let's make some bricks of clay and bake them in the fire." Then they used these bricks as stones, and they used tar as mortar.
Genesis 19:17
So after the two men brought Lot and his family out of the city, one of the men said, "Now run to save your life! Don't look back at the city, and don't stop anywhere in the valley. Run until you are in the mountains. If you stop, you will be destroyed with the city!"
Genesis 19:30
Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar, so he and his two daughters went to live in the mountains in a cave.
Joshua 8:24
During the fighting, the army of Israel chased the men from Ai into the fields and into the desert. So the army of Israel finished killing all the men from Ai in the fields and in the desert. Then the Israelites went back to Ai and killed all the people who were still alive in the city.
Psalms 83:10
You destroyed the enemy at Endor, and their bodies rotted on the ground.
Isaiah 24:18
People will hear about the danger, and they will be afraid. Some of them will run away, but they will fall into holes and be trapped. Some of them will climb out of the holes, but they will be caught in another trap. The floodgates in the sky above will open, and the floods will begin. The foundations of the earth will shake.
Jeremiah 48:44
People will be afraid and run away, and they will fall into the deep holes. Anyone who climbs out of the deep holes will be caught in the traps. I will bring the year of punishment to Moab." This is what the Lord said.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The heart knoweth his own bitterness,.... Or "the bitterness of his soul" l, the distress of his conscience, the anguish of his mind; the heart of man only knows the whole of it; something of it may be known to others by his looks, his words, and gestures, but not all of it; see 1 Corinthians 2:10; bitterness of soul often arises from outward troubles, pains, and diseases of body, losses, crosses, and disappointments, 1 Samuel 1:10. Sometimes it is upon spiritual accounts; but this is not the case of every heart; men may be in the gall of bitterness, and have no bitterness of soul on account of it; the sensualist and voluptuous worldling feels nothing of it, nor the hardened and hardhearted sinner; only such who are awakened and convinced by the Spirit of God; to these, as sin is a bitter thing in itself, it is so to their taste; it makes hitter work for repentance in them; it brings trembling and astonishment on them; fills them with shame and confusion of face, causes self-loathing and abhorrence, and severe reflections upon themselves; seeing sin in its own colours, they are cut to the heart and killed with it; they are pressed down with the guilt of sin, and the load of it; and, having no views of pardon, are in that distress and bitterness of soul which no tongue can express nor heart conceive but what has felt the same;

and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy; or "mingle himself with it" m; he does not share in it or partake of it; this is more especially true of spiritual joy, which, as it is unspeakable to the man that possesses it, it passes the understanding of a natural man; he can form no true idea of it: spiritual joy is what a sensible sinner partakes of upon the Gospel, the joyful sound of salvation, reaching his ears and his heart, at the revelation of Christ in him and to him, as a Saviour; when an application of pardoning grace is made to his soul, and he has a view of the complete righteousness of Christ, and his interest in it, and can see all his sins expiated and stoned for by his sacrifice; when he is favoured with a sight of the fulness of grace in Christ, and of the spiritual and eternal salvation he has wrought out for him; and likewise when he is indulged with a visit from him, and enjoys communion with him; and when he has a glimpse of eternal glory, and a well grounded hope of right unto it, and meetness for it: now a stranger, one that is a stranger to God and godliness, to Christ and the way of salvation by him, to the Spirit and his work of grace upon the heart, to the Gospel and the doctrines of it, to his own heart and the plague of it, to the saints and communion with them; knows nothing at all of the above joy, nor can he interrupt it, nor take it away.

l מרת נפשו "amaritudine animae suae", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis. m לא יתערב "non immiscet se", Michaelis, so Tigurine version; "non miscebit sese", Baynus; "non intermiscet se", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A striking expression of the ultimate solitude of each man’s soul at all times, and not merely at the hour of death. Something there is in every sorrow, and in every joy, which no one else can share. Beyond that range it is well to remember that there is a Divine Sympathy, uniting perfect knowledge and perfect love.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 14:10. The heart knoweth his own bitterness — מרת נפשו morrath naphsho, "The bitterness of its soul." Under spiritual sorrow, the heart feels, the soul feels; all the animal nature feels and suffers. But when the peace of God is spoken to the troubled soul, the joy is indescribable; the whole man partakes of it. And a stranger to these religious feelings, to the travail of the soul, and to the witness of the Spirit, does not intermeddle with them; he does not understand them: indeed they may be even foolishness to him, because they are spiritually discerned.


 
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