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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Proverbs 15:13

A cheerful heart brings a smile to your face; a sad heart makes it hard to get through the day.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Contentment;   Countenance;   Heart;   Thompson Chain Reference - Cheerfulness;   Cheerfulness-Despondency;   Joy-Sorrow;   Social Duties;   Sorrow;   The Topic Concordance - Countenance;   Heart;   Sorrow;   Spirit/souls;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Spirit;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Disease;   Heart;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Nehemiah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Countenance;   Face;   Proverbs, Book of;   Spirit;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Broken;   Countenance;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Cheer;   Countenance;   Spirit;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
A joyful heart makes a face cheerful,but a sad heart produces a broken spirit.
Hebrew Names Version
A glad heart makes a cheerful face; But an aching heart breaks the spirit.
King James Version
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
English Standard Version
A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.
New American Standard Bible
A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.
New Century Version
Happiness makes a person smile, but sadness can break a person's spirit.
Amplified Bible
A heart full of joy and goodness makes a cheerful face, But when a heart is full of sadness the spirit is crushed.
World English Bible
A glad heart makes a cheerful face; But an aching heart breaks the spirit.
Geneva Bible (1587)
A ioyfull heart maketh a chearefull countenance: but by the sorow of the heart the minde is heauie.
Legacy Standard Bible
A glad heart makes a face look good,But when the heart is pained, the spirit is broken.
Berean Standard Bible
A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance, but sorrow of the heart crushes the spirit.
Contemporary English Version
Happiness makes you smile; sorrow can crush you.
Complete Jewish Bible
A glad heart makes a face happy, but heartache breaks the spirit.
Darby Translation
A joyful heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
Easy-to-Read Version
If you are happy, your face shows it. If you are sad, your spirit feels defeated.
George Lamsa Translation
A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
Good News Translation
When people are happy, they smile, but when they are sad, they look depressed.
Lexham English Bible
A heart of gladness will make good countenance, but in sorrow of heart a spirit is broken.
Literal Translation
A joyful heart makes a good face, but by grief of heart the spirit is stricken.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
A mery herte maketh a chearfull countenaunce, but an vnquyet mynde maketh it heuy.
American Standard Version
A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance; But by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
Bible in Basic English
A glad heart makes a shining face, but by the sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
King James Version (1611)
A merry heart maketh a cheerefull countenance: but by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
A mery heart maketh a chearfull countenaunce: but by the sorowe of the heart the mynde is heauy.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
When the heart rejoices the countenance is cheerful; but when it is in sorrow, the countenance is sad.
English Revised Version
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
A ioiful herte makith glad the face; the spirit is cast doun in the morenyng of soule.
Update Bible Version
A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance; But by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
Webster's Bible Translation
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
New English Translation
A joyful heart makes the face cheerful, but by a painful heart the spirit is broken.
New King James Version
A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
New Living Translation
A glad heart makes a happy face; a broken heart crushes the spirit.
New Life Bible
A glad heart makes a happy face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.
New Revised Standard
A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
A joyful heart, maketh a pleasing countenance, - but, in sorrow of heart, is a stricken spirit.
Douay-Rheims Bible
A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by grief of mind the spirit is cast down.
Revised Standard Version
A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
Young's Literal Translation
A joyful heart maketh glad the face, And by grief of heart is the spirit smitten.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.

Contextual Overview

13 A cheerful heart brings a smile to your face; a sad heart makes it hard to get through the day.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

merry: Proverbs 15:15, Proverbs 17:22, 2 Corinthians 1:12

by: Proverbs 12:25, Proverbs 18:14, Nehemiah 2:2, John 14:1, 2 Corinthians 2:7, 2 Corinthians 7:10

Reciprocal: Psalms 13:2 - sorrow Proverbs 14:10 - heart

Cross-References

Genesis 15:1
After all these things, this word of God came to Abram in a vision: "Don't be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield. Your reward will be grand!"
Genesis 15:2
Abram said, " God , Master, what use are your gifts as long as I'm childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?" Abram continued, "See, you've given me no children, and now a mere house servant is going to get it all."
Genesis 15:6
And he believed! Believed God ! God declared him "Set-Right-with-God."
Genesis 15:7
God continued, "I'm the same God who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own."
Genesis 15:8
Abram said, "Master God , how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?"
Genesis 15:13
God said to Abram, "Know this: your descendants will live as outsiders in a land not theirs; they'll be enslaved and beaten down for 400 years. Then I'll punish their slave masters; your offspring will march out of there loaded with plunder. But not you; you'll have a long and full life and die a good and peaceful death. Not until the fourth generation will your descendants return here; sin is still a thriving business among the Amorites."
Exodus 1:11
So they organized them into work-gangs and put them to hard labor under gang-foremen. They built the storage cities Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh. But the harder the Egyptians worked them the more children the Israelites had—children everywhere! The Egyptians got so they couldn't stand the Israelites and treated them worse than ever, crushing them with slave labor. They made them miserable with hard labor—making bricks and mortar and back-breaking work in the fields. They piled on the work, crushing them under the cruel workload.
Exodus 22:21
"Don't abuse or take advantage of strangers; you, remember, were once strangers in Egypt.
Exodus 23:9
"Don't take advantage of a stranger. You know what it's like to be a stranger; you were strangers in Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:19
You must treat foreigners with the same loving care— remember, you were once foreigners in Egypt. Reverently respect God , your God, serve him, hold tight to him, back up your promises with the authority of his name. He's your praise! He's your God! He did all these tremendous, these staggering things that you saw with your own eyes.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance,.... Or, a "joyful heart" c; that is joyful in the God of its salvation; that rejoices in Christ Jesus; is filled with joy and peace through believing in him, in his person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice; that has a comfortable view of his justification by his righteousness, of peace and pardon by his blood, of the atonement of his sins by his sacrifice; to whom he has said, "be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee", Matthew 9:2; who has peace in him, though tribulation in the world: as such a man's heart must be made glad, this will make his countenance cheerful, or cause him to lift up his head with joy; as it is in natural things, so it is in spiritual ones;

but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken; a man is dejected, his spirits sink, and it is seen in his countenance: there is a great sympathy between the body and mind, the one is much affected by the other; when the heart is full of sorrow, the animal spirits are low, the nerves are loosened, the whole frame, of nature is enfeebled, and the body emaciated; this is often the case through outward troubles d: physicians say e that grief weakens the strength, and destroys the spirits, more than labour does. "The sorrow of the world worketh death", 2 Corinthians 7:10; and sometimes, through spiritual troubles, a sense of sin and guilt of it, a legal sorrow, which produces a legal contrition of spirit; and such "a wounded spirit who can bear?"

Proverbs 18:14. This is the effect of a mere work of the law upon the conscience; and stands opposed to the spiritual joy, and the effects of it, the Gospel brings.

c לב שמח "cor gaudens", V. L. Baynus. d "Frangit fortia corda dolor", Tibullus, l. 3. Eleg. 2. v. 6. e Fernel. Method. Medendi, l. 7. c. 9. p. 54.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Some prefer to render the last clause, “In sorrow of heart the breath is oppressed.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 15:13. By sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. — Every kind of sorrow worketh death, but that which is the offspring of true repentance. This alone is healthful to the soul. The indulgence of a disposition to sighing tends to destroy life. Every deep sigh throws off a portion of the vital energy.


 
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