"This too shall pass" means nothing lasts forever, good or bad. It is a reminder that the hard stretch you are in right now has an end. In Hebrew the phrase is Gam Zeh Ya'avor, written גַּם זֶה יַעֲבֹר.
People reach for it in two very different moments. One is grief, illness, divorce, or a season that feels like it will never lift. The other is a happy peak, where it works as a quiet nudge to stay humble and pay attention.
That double meaning is the whole point. The phrase was built to comfort a person in pain and steady a person in success, using the same four words.
What "Gam Zeh Ya'avor" means in Hebrew
Word for word, gam means "also," zeh means "this," and ya'avor means "will pass." Put together it reads "this also will pass."
Say it as gahm zeh yah-ah-VOR, with the weight on the last part. The verb comes from the root ע־ב־ר, which carries the sense of crossing over or moving through something rather than the thing simply disappearing.
That shade of meaning matters. You are not being told the trouble vanishes. You are being told you will get to the other side of it.
Where the phrase comes from
It is older than most people assume, and it is not from the Bible. The earliest written versions appear in 12th century Persian poetry, in the work of Sanai and of Attar of Nishapur.
Attar tells it as a fable about a powerful king who asks his wise men for a ring that will make him happy when he is sad. They hand him a plain ring with this sentence etched on it.
Jewish tradition retold the story with King Solomon at the center. Many of those versions were collected and recorded by the Israel Folklore Archive at the University of Haifa. We walk through the full story in our guide to the King Solomon ring story.
Is "this too shall pass" in the Bible?
No. It does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, or the Midrash.
It gets mistaken for scripture constantly, partly because it sounds like scripture and partly because Solomon is attached to the folk version. We cover the confusion in detail in is "this too shall pass" in the Bible.
The three-letter version most people have never seen
Hebrew has a shorthand for the phrase: גַּזַ"י. It is just the three opening letters, gimel, zayin and yod, standing in for Gam Zeh Ya'avor.
This is genuinely useful if you are engraving something small. A signet face or a narrow band often cannot hold the full phrase at a size you can still read.
We proof every Hebrew engraving before it goes into production, so you can see the letterforms at actual size before anything is cut. Our Hebrew engraving guide covers how much text fits on what.
Why people wear it
Wearing the phrase puts it somewhere you will actually see it. A ring or bangle sits in your line of sight during exactly the moments the words are meant for.
On a spinner ring there is a second layer. The outer band turns, which gives restless hands something to do and can support a calmer, more grounded moment. It does not treat anxiety or any condition, and we will never tell you it does.
Our Eli Spinner Ring carries גם זה יעבור in real Hebrew letterforms, and the This Too Shall Pass bangle carries the English. You can see the full line in our This Too Shall Pass collection.
English, Hebrew and the versions you will see
| Version | Script | How to say it | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gam Zeh Ya'avor | גַּם זֶה יַעֲבֹר | gahm zeh yah-ah-VOR | The standard Hebrew phrase |
| Gazai (acronym) | גַּזַ"י | gah-ZAI | Small engravings, signet faces |
| This Too Shall Pass | English | - | Bangles, English-side engraving |
| Gam Zu L'Tovah | גַּם זוּ לְטוֹבָה | gahm zoo leh-toe-VAH | A different phrase, see below |
Gam Zeh Ya'avor is not the same as Gam Zu L'Tovah
These two get mixed up all the time. Gam Zeh Ya'avor says this will pass. Gam Zu L'Tovah says this too is for the good.
One is about time moving. The other is about meaning inside the hardship itself. They are separate ideas and separate pieces, and we keep them separate in our Gam Zu L'Tovah guide.
Common questions
Who originally said "this too shall pass"?
No single named person. The oldest written versions are 12th century Persian, in Sanai and Attar of Nishapur. The Solomon attribution comes from later Jewish and English retellings.
How do you write "this too shall pass" in Hebrew?
גַּם זֶה יַעֲבֹר. Hebrew reads right to left, so the first word gam sits on the right. See this too shall pass in Hebrew for spelling, vowels and pronunciation.
Is it a Jewish saying?
It is not from Jewish scripture, but it has a long life in Jewish folklore and everyday Hebrew speech. Israelis use Gam Zeh Ya'avor in ordinary conversation today.
What finger do you wear a spinner ring on?
Whichever one lets you turn the band easily without thinking. Most people pick an index or middle finger on the non-dominant hand. Our guide to wearing a spinner ring goes deeper.
Does the engraving wear off?
Not on a properly cut engraving in solid metal. We cut into the metal rather than printing on top of it, so the letters stay as long as the piece does.
