Proverbs 15:13

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) By sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.—See above on Proverbs 12:25.

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 15:13-15. A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; &c. — “When the mind of a man is inwardly satisfied, and full of joy, it does good to his body too, as appears in his cheerful countenance: but when grief seizes on the heart, it detects, enfeebles, and breaks the most courageous spirit.” All the days of the afflicted — Of those troubled in mind, as the meaning of this general expression may be very fitly restrained from the following clause; are evil — Tedious and uncomfortable; he takes no satisfaction in any person, place, or thing; but he that is of a merry heart — Hebrew, of a good heart, that is, composed, quiet, and contented, conscious of intending God’s glory in all things, and of being devoted to his service in love and obedience; hath a continual feast — Hath constant satisfaction and delight in all conditions, yea, even in affliction.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:11. There is nothing that can be hid from the eyes of God, not even man's thoughts. 12. A scorner cannot bear to reflect seriously within his own heart. 13. A gloomy, impatient, unthankful spirit, springing from pride and undue attachment to worldly objects, renders a man uneasy to himself and others.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. maketh … countenance—or, "benefits the countenance."

spirit is broken—and so the countenance is sad.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The spirit; either,

1. His vital spirits. Or rather,

2. His courage and rigour, the decay whereof showeth itself in his countenance, as is implied from the former clause.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire 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) "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.

Geneva Study Bible

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance. The face is the index of the condition of the mind.

"In the forehead and the eye
The lecture of the mind doth lie." And, again, "A blithe heart makes a blooming visage" (comp. Ecelus. 13:25, etc.). Septuagint, "When the heart is glad, the face bloometh (θάλλει)." But by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken (Proverbs 12:25). Happiness is shown in the outward look, but sorrow has a deeper and more abiding influence; it touches the inner life, destroys the natural elasticity, creates despondency and despair (comp. Proverbs 16:24; Proverbs 17:22). Corn. a Lapide quotes St. Gregory Nazianzen's definition -

"Laetitia quidnam? Mentis est diffusio.
Tristitia? Cordis morsus et turbatio." Hitzig and others translate the second clause, "But in sorrow of heart is the breath oppressed." It is doubtful if the words can be so rendered, and certainly the parallelism is not improved thereby. Proverbs 15:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

13 A joyful heart maketh the countenance cheerful;

     But in sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

The expression of the countenance, as well as the spiritual habitus of a man, is conditioned by the state of the heart. A joyful heart maketh the countenance טוב, which means friendly, but here happy-looking equals cheerful (for טוב ro is the most general designation of that which makes an impression which is pleasant to the senses or to the mind); on the contrary, with sorrow of heart (עצּבת, constr. of עצּבת, Proverbs 10:10, as חטאת equals חטּאת, from חטּאה) there is connected a stricken, broken, downcast heart; the spiritual functions of the man are paralyzed; self-confidence, without which energetic action is impossible, is shattered; he appears discouraged, whereby רוּח is thought of as the power of self-consciousness and of self-determination, but לב, as our "Gemt" [animus], as the oneness of thinking and willing, and thus as the seat of determination, which decides the intellectual-corporeal life-expression of the man, or without being able to be wholly restrained, communicates itself to them. The ב of וּבעצּבת is, as Proverbs 15:16., Proverbs 16:8; Proverbs 17:1, meant in the force of being together or along with, so that רוּח נכאה do not need to be taken separate from each other as subject and predicate: the sense of the noun-clause is in the ב, as e.g., also Proverbs 7:23 (it is about his life, i.e., it concerns his life). Elsewhere the crushed spirit, like the broken heart, is equivalent to the heart despairing in itself and prepared for grace. The heart with a more clouded mien may be well, for sorrow has in it a healing power (Ecclesiastes 7:3). But here the matter is the general psychological truth, that the corporeal and spiritual life of man has its regulator in the heart, and that the condition of the heart leaves its stamp on the appearance and on the activity of the man. The translation of the רוח נכאה by "oppressed breath" (Umbreit, Hitzig) is impossible; the breath cannot be spoken of as broken.