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13 Even in laughter the heart may ache,[a]
and the end[b] of joy may be[c] grief.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 14:13 sn No joy is completely free of grief. There is a joy that is superficial and there is underlying pain that will remain after the joy is gone.
  2. Proverbs 14:13 tc Heb “and its end, joy, is grief.” The suffix may be regarded as an Aramaism, a proleptic suffix referring to “joy.” Or it may be considered a case of wrong word division, moving the ה (he) to read אַחֲרִית הַשִּׂמְחָה (ʾakharit hassimkhah, “after the joy [may be] grief”) rather than אַחֲרִיתָהּ שִׂמְחָה (ʾakharitah simkhah, “after it, joy, grief”).
  3. Proverbs 14:13 tn The phrase “may be” is not in the Hebrew but is supplied from the parallelism, which features an imperfect of possibility.

13 Even in laughter(A) the heart may ache,
    and rejoicing may end in grief.

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