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Read the Bible

Green's Literal Translation

Proverbs 14:10

The heart knows the bitterness of its soul, and a stranger does not mix in its 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.
Easy-to-Read Version
When you are sad, no one else feels the pain; and when you are happy, no one else can really feel the 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.
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 The heart knows the bitterness of its soul, and a stranger does not mix in its 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
And each one said to his neighbor, Come, let us make brick, and burning burn them. And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
Genesis 19:17
And it happened as they led them outside, he said, Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay in all the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest you be swept away.
Genesis 19:30
And Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the mount. And his two daughters were with him. For he feared to live in Zoar. And he lived in a cave, he and his two daughters.
Joshua 8:24
And it happened, when Israel had made an end to slaying all the ones living in Ai in the field, even in the wilderness where they pursued them (and they, all of them, fell by the mouth of the sword until they were consumed) all Israel turned back to Ai, and struck it with the mouth of the sword.
Psalms 83:10
At Endor they were destroyed; they became dung for the ground.
Isaiah 24:18
And it shall be, he who flees from the sound of dread shall fall into the pit. And he who comes up out of the middle of the pit shall be taken in the snare. For the windows from on high are opened, and the earth's foundations quake.
Jeremiah 48:44
He who flees from the dread shall fall into the pit. And he who goes up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare. For I will bring it on Moab, the year of their punishment, declares Jehovah.

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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