Limitless Word
If you faint in the day of distress, how small is your strength!
Proverbs 24:10 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small.
  • KJV If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
  • NKJV If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small.
  • NASB ¶If you show yourself lacking courage on the day of distress, Your strength is meager.
  • NLT If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

If you collapse in adversity, your strength was small to begin with.

Overview

Trouble tests and reveals the true measure of one's strength and faith. Faltering in hardship exposes a weakness that prosperity had concealed. This drives believers to find their strength not in themselves but in the Lord, who supplies power in trial, so that even in weakness His strength is made perfect (2 Cor. 12:9; Phil. 4:13).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 10

  • Isa 40:28–31Do 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.
  • Eph 3:13So I ask you not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
  • Jer 51:46Do 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 Sam 27:1David, 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.”
  • Heb 12:3–5Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
  • Job 4:5But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
  • Rev 2:3Without growing weary, you have persevered and endured many things for the sake of My name.
  • 2 Cor 4:1Therefore, since God in His mercy has given us this ministry, we do not lose heart.
  • Rev 2:13I know where you live, where the throne of Satan sits. Yet you have held fast to My name and have not denied your faith in Me, even in the day when My faithful witness Antipas was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
  • John 4:8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Proverbs videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Proverbs 24:10YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ProverbsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.

How Proverbs 24:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.