{"id":29567,"date":"2023-04-03T21:09:57","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T11:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/?p=29567"},"modified":"2025-11-01T21:29:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T10:59:30","slug":"proverbs-1515-the-days-of-the-afflicted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/proverbs-1515-the-days-of-the-afflicted\/","title":{"rendered":"Proverbs 15:15 – The days of the afflicted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” da_disable_devices=”off|off|off” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”et_body_layout” da_is_popup=”off” da_exit_intent=”off” da_has_close=”on” da_alt_close=”off” da_dark_close=”off” da_not_modal=”on” da_is_singular=”off” da_with_loader=”off” da_has_shadow=”on”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”et_body_layout”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.24.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”et_body_layout”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”1891px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”et_body_layout” sticky_enabled=”0″]

NIV \u2013 \u201cAll the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.<\/em>\u201d
GNT \u2013 \u201cThe life of the poor is a constant struggle, but happy people always enjoy life.<\/em>\u201d
NKJV, KJV \u2013 \u201cAll the days of the afflicted are evil, But he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The NIV and GNT versions of verse 15 sound uncaring, they appears to say that victims of oppression or poverty will have to put up with being wretched all their days, while the lucky person (who is not oppressed or poor) can have a cheerful heart and a grand life.\u00a0But in different translations, this verse has a variety of different meanings, and the KJV and NKJV use \u201cafflicted\u201d.<\/p>\n

We can see the intended meaning of this verse by looking at the other verses in chapter 15. The general theme of the chapter is that:
(a) the quality of our lives, and
(b) the quality of the lives of those around us;
is not determined by external circumstances, but by what comes from within us \u2013 the personal choices we make, and the things we do and say in response to life\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n

Verse 16 says, \u201cBetter a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil<\/em>\u201d
And verse 18, \u201cA hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel.<\/em>\u201d
The New Living Translation reflects this theme in verse 15:
NLT \u201cFor the despondent, every day brings trouble; for the happy heart, life is a continual feast.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

This reminds me of the Catholic list of Seven Deadly Sins, the last of which has been called Sloth, but is better described as, \u201can unrelenting and wilful gloom and despondency, resulting in idleness.\u201d Aquinas related this sin to bitterness, because those in its grips interiorized their anger, locking it up in their hearts and poisoning themselves. That view could lead us to take the KJV as \u201cafflicting themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

My personal thoughts on verse 15 are:
Within our limited human logic, life doesn\u2019t make sense. Two summaries of typical human understanding I have seen were:
(1) a bumper sticker which read, \u201cHe who dies with the most toys wins\u201d, and
(2) a work colleague who regularly exclaimed, \u201cLife\u2019s a bitch and then you\u2019re dead.\u201d
So, human understanding tends to lead to disappointment and despondency. And then sometimes bitterness toward others and toward ourselves, which is a certain cause of daily trouble.<\/p>\n

But that is not what God intended for us. Dante described the seventh sin as the “failure to love God with all one’s heart, all one’s mind and all one’s soul.” When we do love God in that way, especially as we are aware of the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross, a natural consequence is \u201cto love our neighbour as ourselves\u201d, and to actively express God\u2019s love in all we do. The transformed heart God creates in us will know true contentment in Him. It\u2019s the perfect and only cure for despondency and idleness, as we daily enjoy God\u2019s blessings, whatever our external circumstances.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NIV \u2013 \u201cAll the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.\u201dGNT \u2013 \u201cThe life of the poor is a constant struggle, but happy people always enjoy life.\u201dNKJV, KJV \u2013 \u201cAll the days of the afflicted are evil, But he who is of a merry heart has a continual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-verses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29567"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29572,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29567\/revisions\/29572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}