Pro 14:13 | NET2full | STEP | Even in laughter the heart may ache , and the end of joy may be grief .

‏ Proverbs 14:13

13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, ^{▼▼sn No joy is completely free of grief. There is a joy that is superficial and there is underlying pain that will remain after the joy is gone.}
and the end ^{▼▼tc Heb “and its end, joy, is grief.” The suffix may be regarded as an Aramaism, a proleptic suffix referring to “joy.” Or it may be considered a case of wrong word division, moving the ה (he) to read אַחֲרִית הַשִּׂמְחָה (ʾakharit hassimkhah, “after the joy [may be] grief”) rather than אַחֲרִיתָהּ שִׂמְחָה (ʾakharitah simkhah, “after it, joy, grief”).} of joy may be ^{▼▼tn The phrase “may be” is not in the Hebrew but is supplied from the parallelism, which features an imperfect of possibility.} grief.