Proverbs 18:14

The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity,.... The spirit of a mighty man, as Jarchi; a man of spirit, that has a spirit of fortitude, even of natural fortitude, and especially of Christian

The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity (of body): but a wounded spirit who can bear?

The spirit, i.e. the soul, to wit, which is unwounded, as appears by the opposite branch of the verse; which is vigorous and cheerful, supported by the sense of God’ s love, and the conscience of its own integrity, and the prospect of its present peace and future happiness. Will sustain his infirmity; will easily support him under any bodily or outward troubles, as God’ s people have oft found by experience. Wounded; dejected with the sense of its own guilt and misery. Who can bear? it is most grievous and intolerable without Divine assistance.

Proverbs 18:14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?Ver. 14. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity.] Some sorry shift a man may make to bustle with, and to rub through other ailments and aggrievances, disasters or diseases, sores or sicknesses of the body - as the word here properly importeth. Let a man be sound within, and, upon good terms, at peace with his own conscience, and he will bravely bear unspeakable pressures. Paul was merry under his load, because his heart was cheery in the Lord; as an old beaten porter to the cross, maluit tolerare quam deplorare, his "stroke was heavier than his groaning," as Job. Alexander Aphrodiseus gives a reason why porters under their burdens go singing; because the mind, being delighted with the sweetness of the music, the body feels the weight so much the less. Their shoulders, while sound, will bear great luggage; but let a bone be broken, or but the skin rubbed up and raw, the lightest load will be grievous. A little water in a leaden vessel is heavy; so is a little trouble in an evil conscience. But a wounded spirit who can bear?] q.d., It is a burden importable, able to quail the courage, and crush the shoulders of the hugest Hercules, of the mightiest man upon earth; who can bear it? The body cannot; much less a diseased body. And if the soul be at unrest, the body cannot but co-suffer. Hence Job preferred, and Judas chose strangling before it. Bilney and Bainham, after they had abjured, felt such a hell in their consciences, till they had openly professed their sorrow for that sin, as they would not feel again for all the world’ s good. Daniel chose rather to be cast into the den of lions, than to carry about a lion in his bosom, an enraged conscience. The primitive Christians cried likewise, Ad Leones potius quam ad Lenones adiaciamur. To the lions is more preferable than let us be thrown near the lions. What a terror to himself was our Richard III, after the cruel murder of his two innocent nephews; and Charles IX of France, after that bloody massacre? He could never endure to be awakened in the night without music, or some like diversion. But, alas! if the soul itself be out of tune, these outward things do no more good than a fair shoe to a gouty foot, or a silken stocking to a broken leg. Problem i. Numb. 78. Act. and Mon., fol. 938.

(14) The spirit of a man.—That is, one properly so called, who draws his strength from God, will “sustain his infirmity,” help him to bear up against trouble; “but a wounded spirit” (not one crushed with the sense of sin, for that God will lift up, Isaiah 66:2; Psalms 51:17), which retires into itself and nurses its griefs, “who can bear” the wear of it?

Verse 14. The spirit of a man will sustain] A man sustains the ills of his body, and the trials of life, by the strength and energy of his mind. But if the mind be wounded, if this be cast down, if slow-consuming care and grief have shot the dagger into the soul, what can then sustain the man? Nothing but the unseen God. Therefore, let the afflicted pray. A man's own spirit has, in general, sufficient fortitude to bear up under the unavoidable trials of life; but when the conscience is wounded by sin, and the soul is dying by iniquity, who can lift him up? God alone; for salvation is of the Lord.

14. a wounded spirit] If the sustaining spirit be itself wounded or broken, the burden becomes intolerable. It is the pathetic thought of “the spirit which so long bore a man’s infirmity, and then at last broke because it could bear no more, and became itself intolerable,” Horton.

Infirmity - Bodily pain or trouble. “Spirit” in the Hebrew text is masculine in the first clause, feminine in the second, as though used in the latter as having lost its strength.

14. Sustain his infirmity — Literally, sustains his disease. A wounded spirit — Or, smitten or broken spirit, “spirit of upbraiding.” — Miller. Who can bear — That is, no one can.