Bible Strands
Proverbs 24:10
If you faint in the day of distress, how small is your strength!
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — An unnamed sage addresses a young person being trained in wisdom, within a passage (vv. 9–12) that moves from condemning a mocker to commanding rescue of the helpless.
The words — הִתְרַפּיתָ (hitrāpītā) is a Hithpael form of רפ"ה, literally "you have shown yourself slack," a reflexive verb that locates the failure in the person's own posture. The root צר (tsar, "narrow") echoes in צָרָה (tsarāh, "trouble"), so the verse reads almost as a wordplay: the trouble narrows your strength.
The thread — Isaiah 40:28 asserts the LORD "will not faint," setting the human failure of Proverbs 24:10 against divine endurance; Jeremiah 51:46 and Ephesians 3:13 both command the reader not to let the heart grow faint or discouraged.
Why it lands — The verse is a diagnostic, not a prescription: it does not tell you how to gain strength but reveals that your strength was already smaller than you thought, exposed only when the day of trouble comes.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.
- Ephesians 3:13 So I ask you not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
- Jeremiah 51:46 Do not let your heart grow faint, and do not be afraid when the rumor is heard in the land; for a rumor will come one year—and then another the next year—of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.
- 1 Samuel 27:1 David, however, said to himself, “One of these days now I will be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me all over Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”
- Hebrews 12:3 Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
- Job 4:5 But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
- 2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore, since God in His mercy has given us this ministry, we do not lose heart.
- Revelation 2:3 Without growing weary, you have persevered and endured many things for the sake of My name.
- Revelation 2:13 I know where you live, where the throne of Satan sits, yet you hold fast to My name. You did not deny your faith in Me, even in the days of My faithful witness Antipas, who was killed among you where Satan dwells.
- John 4:8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)