Proverbs 24:10

Footnotes

1. 15 Heb “show yourself slack” ( similar). The verb רָפָה (rafah) means “to sink; to relax.” In the causative stems it means “to let slacken; to let go; to refrain; to fail; to do nothing.” In the Hitpael stem 952 defines it as “to show yourself slack.” It has also been rendered as “give up” (, ); “fail” (); “falter” (). The colon implies a condition, for which the second part of the verse is the apodosis.
2. 16 The verse employs a paronomasia to underscore the point: “trouble” is צָרָה (tsarah), literally “a bind; a strait [or, narrow] place”; “small” is צַר (tsar), with the same idea of “narrow” or “close.”
3. 17 The test of strength is adversity, for it reveals how strong a person is. Of course a weak person can always plead adverse conditions in order to quit. This is the twenty-fourth saying.