Singing cheerful songs to a person with a heavy heart is like taking someone’s coat in cold weather or pouring vinegar in a wound.
Parallel translations
- WEB As one who takes away a garment in cold weather, or vinegar on soda, so is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.
- KJV As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.
- BSB Like one who removes a garment on a cold day or vinegar poured on a wound is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.
- NKJV Like one who takes away a garment in cold weather, And like vinegar on soda, Is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.
- NASB Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar on soda, Is one who sings songs to a troubled heart.
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
Singing cheerful songs to a grieving heart is as jarring as taking a coat in the cold. Comfort must fit the sufferer's condition.
Overview
The proverb warns against insensitive, ill-timed cheer that ignores another's pain, like removing warmth from one who is cold. True wisdom weeps with those who weep (Rom 12:15). It commends compassionate sensitivity in how we minister to the hurting.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Rom 12:15Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.
- Eccl 3:4a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
- Deut 24:12–17If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge.
- Isa 58:7Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
- Jas 2:15–16And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food,
- Dan 6:18Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting; neither were instruments of music brought before him: and his sleep fled from him.
- Ps 137:3–4For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
- Prov 10:26As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.
- Job 24:7–10They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
- Jas 5:15and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 25:20 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.