Proverbs 24:10 If thou faint - If thou give way to discouragement and despair in the day of adversity - time of trial

or temptation. Thy strength is small - tsar cochachah, thy strength is contracted. So the old MS. Bible excellently: Gif sliden thou dispeire, in the dai of anguyfs, schal be made litil thy strengthe. In times of trial we should endeavor to be doubly courageous; when a man loses his courage, his strength avails him nothing. Proverbs 24:10 Under troubles we are apt to despair of relief. But be of good courage, and God shall strengthen thy heart. Proverbs 24:10 The last of these four distichs stands without visible connection: Hast thou shown thyself slack in the day of adversity, Then is thy strength small. The perf. 10a is the hypothetic, vid., at Pro_22:29. If a man shows himself remiss (Pro_18:9), i.e., changeable, timorous, incapable of resisting in times of difficulty, then shall he draw therefrom the conclusion which is expressed in 10b. Rightly Luther, with intentional generalization, he is not strong who is not firm in need. But the address makes the proverb an earnest admonition, which speaks to him who shows himself weak the judgment which he has to pronounce on himself. And the paronomasia and may be rendered, where possible, if thy strength becomes, as it were, pressed together and bowed down by the difficulty just when it ought to show itself (viz., ,) then it is limited, thou art a weakling. Thus Fleischer accordingly, translating: si segnis fueris die angustiae, angustae sunt vires tuae. Hitzig, on the contrary, corrects after Job_7:11, Klemm (klamm) ist dein Mut [= strait is thy courage]. And why? Of [ strength], he remarks, one can say [ it is weak] (Psa_31:11), but scarcely [ strait, straitened]; for force is exact, and only the region of its energy may be wide or narrow. To this we answer, that certainly of strength in itself we cannot use the word drow eht esu t in the sense here required; the confinement (limitation) may rather be, as with a stream, Isa_59:19, the increasing (heightening) of its intensity. But if the strength is in itself anything definite, then on the other hand its expression is something linear, and the force in view of its expression is that which is here called ,i.e., not extending widely, not expanding, not inaccessible. is all to which narrow limits are applied. A little strength is limited, because it is little also in its expression. Proverbs 24:10 Literally, If thou fail in the day of straits (adversity), strait (or, small) is thy strength, which is then truly tested. Proverbs 24:10 Note, 1. In the day of adversity we are apt to faint, to droop and be discouraged, to desist from our work, and to despair of relief. Our spirits sink, and then our hands hang down and our knees grow feeble, and we become unfit for anything. And often those that are most cheerful when they are well droop most, and are most dejected, when any thing ails them. 2. This is an evidence that our strength is small, and is a means of weakening it more. It is a sign that thou art not a man of any resolution, any firmness of thought, any consideration, any faith (for that is the strength of a soul), if thou canst not bear up under an afflictive change of thy condition. Some are so feeble that they can bear nothing; if a trouble does but touch them (Job_4:5), nay, if it does but threaten them, they faint immediately and are ready to give up all for gone; and by

this means they render themselves unfit to grapple with their trouble and unable to help themselves. Be of good courage therefore, and God shall strengthen thy heart. Proverbs 24:10 If thou faint in the day of adversity,.... When under bodily afflictions, stripping providences, reduced to great straits and wants; or under the violent persecutions of men, which is sometimes the case of the people of God; whose times are in his hands, times of adversity, as well as prosperity; and which are appointed by him, when they shall come, and how long they shall last; which is but for a short time, it is but a "day", and yet they are apt to "faint" under them, through the number and continuance of their afflictions; and especially when they apprehend them to be in wrath; when they have a sense of their sins at such a time, and no view of pardon; when they are under the hidings of God's face, their prayers do not seem to be heard, and salvation and deliverance do not come so soon as they expected; which, notwithstanding, shows the truth of what is next observed; thy strength is small; such who are truly gracious are not indeed at such times wholly without strength; they are in some measure helped to bear up; but yet their sinkings and faintings show that they have but little strength: they have some faith that does not entirely fail, Christ praying for it; yet they are but of little faith; they have but a small degree of Christian fortitude and courage; there is a want of manliness in them; they act the part of children and babes in Christ; they do not quit themselves like men, and much less endure hardness, as good soldiers of Christ, as they should; they are, Ephraim like, without a heart, a courageous one, Hos_7:1. Some think the words have reference to what goes before, and the sense to be this, "if thou art remiss" (g); that is, if thou art careless and negligent in time of health and prosperity, in getting wisdom, as thinking it too high for thee, Pro_24:7; "in the day of adversity thy strength will be small"; thou wilt not have that to support thee which otherwise thou wouldest have had. Aben Ezra connects the sense with the following, "if thou art remiss", in helping and delivering thy friend in affliction, Pro_24:11; "in the day of adversity", or "of straitness, thy strength shall be strait"; thou shalt be left in thy distress and difficulties, and have none to help thee. (g) " si remiseris", Tigurine version; "remissus fuisti", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Gejerus; "si remisse te geras", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Michaelis.

1. Adam Clarkes Commentary on the Bible 2. Matthew Henrys Concise Commentary 3. Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament 4. James, Fausset and Brown Commentary 5. Matthew Henrys Commentary on the whole Bible 6. John Gills exposition of the entire Bible

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