Proverbs 14:13 - Exposition

Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful (comp. Proverbs 14:10 ). This recalls Lucretius's lines—

" Medio de fonte leporum

Surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipsis fioribus angat .

The text is scarcely to be taken as universally true, but either as specially applicable to those mentioned in the preceding verse, or as teaching that the outward mirth often cloaks hidden sorrow (comp. Virgil, ' AE neid,' 1.208, etc.). And the end of that joy is bitterness; it has in it no element of endurance, and when it is past, the real grief that it masked comes into prominence. In this mortal life also joy and sorrow are strangely intermingled; sorrow fellows closely on the steps of joy; as some one somewhere says, "The sweetest waters at length find their way to the sea, and are embittered there." Lesetre refers to Pascal, 'Pensees,' 2.1: "Tous se plaignent … de tout pays, de tout temps, de tous ages, et de toutes conditions. Une preuve si longue, si continuelle et si uniforme, devrait bien nous convaincre de l'impuissance ou nous sommes d'arriver au bien par nos efforts: mais l'exemple ne nous intruit point … Le present ne nous satisfaisant jamais, l'esperance nous pipe, et, de malheur en malheur, nous meue jusqu'a la mort, qui en est le comble eternel. C'est une chose etrange, qu'il n'y a rien dans la nature qui n'ait ete capable de tenir la place de la fin et du bonheur de l'homme …. L'homme etant dechu de son etat naturel, il n'y arien a quoi il n'ait ete capable de so porter. Depuis qu'il a perdu le vrai bien, tout egalement peut lui paraitre tel, jusqu'a ea destruction propre, toute contraire qu'elle est a la raison et a la nature tout ensemble." This illustrates also Proverbs 14:12 . Proverbs like "There is no rose without a thorn" are common enough in all languages. The Latins said, " Ubi uber, ibi tuber ;" and " Ubi mel, ibi fel ."

Greek experience produced the gnome—

αρ ἐστὶ συγγενές τι λύπη καὶ βίος .

"Sorrow and life are very near of kin."

Who Christian learns another lesson, "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted" ( Matthew 5:4 ). The LXX . has introduced a negative, which gives a sense exactly contrary to the Hebrew and to all the other versions: "In joys there is no admixture of sorrow, but the final joy cometh unto grief." The negative has doubtless crept inadvertently into the text; if it were genuine, the sentence might be explained of the sinner's joy, which he finds for a time and exults in, but which does not last, and is felt to be a delusion as life closes.