Quick answer
The spirit carries the body, but nothing beneath the spirit carries it. When the inner life itself breaks, the verse honors the weight by asking instead of telling.
Read both lines
The first line testifies to what medicine keeps confirming: morale, hope, the unbroken inner person can carry a failing body astonishing distances. The second line turns the structure around: the spirit is the load-bearing wall, and "who can bear a broken spirit?" is a real question the sages leave standing open. The verse's honesty is its kindness: it does not scold the broken or hand them three steps. The wider book does not leave the silence forever, a good word makes the heart glad (12:25), pleasant words are health to the bones (16:24), and the LORD is near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18). But this verse's assignment is the weight itself, and it weighs it truly.
From this side of the cross
The open question received an answer with scars. "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds" (Psalm 147:3) became flesh in the Man of Sorrows, who did not lecture broken spirits but carried them, and still does. Who can bear a broken spirit? The One who bore our griefs and lives.
Related: Proverbs 17:22 · Psalm 34:18 · Isaiah 61:1 · Matthew 12:20
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.