Proverbs 18:14 says, “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?”
Most people read right past this without ever stopping to ask what it actually means. But if we take a moment to step into the ancient manuscripts, into the language God chose to speak first, we find something much deeper than what most pulpits ever teach.
Let’s start with the first half: “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity…” In Hebrew, the word for spirit is ruach. That’s not just “attitude” or “mood” or some poetic stand-in for personality. Ruach is breath, wind, the animating force that gives life. It’s what God Himself breathed into Adam in Genesis 2:7, vayyipakh b’appav nishmat chayyim, “He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” and man became a living soul.
So the spirit of a man, his ruach, is the part of him that comes from the breath of God. And Solomon says that this spirit, this God-breathed inner life, is what holds a man up in the face of infirmity. That Hebrew word there is makh’alah, meaning disease, weakness, affliction. It could be physical illness. It could be deep emotional strain. It could be mental anguish. The word covers all of it. But the point is: when everything else in a man is failing, it is his ruach, that unseen strength, that sustains him. The spirit holds him when his body is collapsing. That’s not psychology. That’s Scripture.
But now we get to the second half. And it flips the whole picture: “but a wounded spirit, who can bear?”
Let me stop here. Because this isn’t casual language. The word wounded is nakeh. It means struck down. Smitten. Crippled. It’s used to describe lepers, the unclean, the cut-off, the broken. In Isaiah 53, when it says the Messiah would be “smitten of God, and afflicted,” it’s this same Hebrew root. That’s how deep the damage is here.
This is not just someone having a bad day or feeling a little sad. This is someone whose very spirit, their ruach, the God-breathed part of them, has taken a blow. When your body gets sick, your spirit can carry you. But when your spirit is wounded, there’s nothing left to lift you up. There’s no crutch for that. No medicine. No therapy. No human solution. When the ruach itself is crushed, the source of strength is gone.
And the question in the verse, “Who can bear it?”, is not rhetorical. It’s not Solomon being poetic. It’s a raw, sobering truth. No one can. No man, no woman, no counselor, no priest. Only the Spirit of God can reach a place that deep.
Now I want to bring this into the light where you can feel it.
Have you ever met someone who had cancer, and yet they glowed with peace? Or someone who lost a child, but still somehow had the strength to love others through it? That is ruach sustaining infirmity. But have you ever looked in the eyes of someone who was totally fine on the outside, body healthy, job intact, and yet the life was gone from behind their eyes? That’s a wounded ruach. That’s a spirit that’s taken a blow too deep for words. That’s the part no human being can heal.
And that’s where the Holy Spirit steps in.
Because the truth is, the only One who can heal a man’s ruach is the One who gave it in the first place. The same God who breathed into Adam, the same God who resurrected Yeshua from the grave, is the only One who can breathe life back into a shattered soul.
Psalm 34:18 says, “YHWH is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those crushed in spirit.” That word crushed is dakka, same idea as nakeh. It means flattened, ground down, shattered. And what does He do? He comes near. He doesn’t stand far off. He doesn’t say “just pray harder” or “try to cheer up.” No, He draws near and saves. He doesn’t repair from a distance. He comes close. He binds. He heals. He breathes again.
Yeshua quoted Isaiah 61 when He began His ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor… to bind up the brokenhearted…” That phrase bind up is chabash, it’s the same word used for wrapping a wound in cloth. He doesn’t ignore the injury. He wraps it Himself. He binds up the very part no human hand can touch.
So let’s put it plain: if your body is sick, your spirit can still carry you, but if your spirit is sick, only God can carry you.
This is not psychology. This is not philosophy. This is ruach. This is divine breath. This is the difference between surviving and perishing. This is the reality of the Holy Spirit, the true Comforter, the Breath of the Living God, the One who lifts us up when no human can.
We need to stop treating the Holy Spirit like a side topic or a denominational debate. The Holy Spirit is not an optional doctrine, He is the breath that sustains our very existence. And when your ruach is wounded, you don’t need more noise. You need the wind of heaven. You need the breath of YHWH to blow life back into you.
So if your spirit is sustaining you right now, thank God, and protect it. Feed it truth. Stay in the Word. Breathe in His promises. But if your spirit is wounded, cry out to the One who made it. Because the answer to Solomon’s question, “Who can bear it?”, is not no one. The answer is: He can. The One who took our wounds, bore our sorrows, and rose again with ruach stronger than death.
That’s your healer. That’s your lifter. That’s your God.
Amen and Amen.
images are made by chatgpt at my direction.