Christian Standard Bible
Proverbs 17:22
22A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
Proverbs 17:22 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
- New International Version (NIV)A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
- English Standard Version (ESV)A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
- New King James Version (NKJV)A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.
Context of Proverbs 17:22
20One with a twisted mind will not succeed, and one with deceitful speech will fall into ruin. 21A man fathers a fool to his own sorrow; the father of a fool has no joy. A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. 23A wicked person secretly takes a bribe to subvert the course of justice. 24Wisdom is the focus of the perceptive, but a fool’s eyes roam to the ends of the earth.
Read all of Proverbs 17Proverbs 17:22 word by word
לֵ֣ב שָׂ֭מֵחַ יֵיטִ֣ב גֵּהָ֑ה וְר֥וּחַ נְ֝כֵאָ֗ה תְּיַבֶּשׁ־גָּֽרֶם׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Proverbs 17:22
- Proverbs 12:25Anxiety in a person’s heart weighs it down, but a good word cheers it up.
- Proverbs 15:13A joyful heart makes a face cheerful, but a sad heart produces a broken spirit.
- Proverbs 18:14A person’s spirit can endure sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?
- Ecclesiastes 9:7Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works.
- Romans 5:2We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
- Psalms 22:15My strength is dried up like baked clay; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You put me into the dust of death.
- Psalms 32:3When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
- Psalms 102:3For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.
- 2 Corinthians 2:7As a result, you should instead forgive and comfort him. Otherwise, he may be overwhelmed by excessive grief.
- 2 Corinthians 7:10For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.
Commentaries on Proverbs 17:22
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 22A merry heart doeth good like a medicine - Instead of גהה gehah, a medicine, it appears that the Chaldee and Syriac had read in their copies גוה gevah, the body, as they translate in this way. This makes the apposition here more complete: "A merry heart doeth good to the body; but a broken spirit drieth the bones." Nothing has such a direct tendency to ruin health and waste out life as grief, anxiety, fretfulness, bad tempers, etc. All these work death.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 22Doeth good like a medicine - Better, worketh a good healing. Omit “like.”Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 22Verse 22 It is great mercy that God gives us leave to be cheerful, and cause to be cheerful, if by his grace he gives us hearts to be cheerful.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2222. (Compare Pr 14:30; 15:13). The effect of the mind on the body is well known. medicine--or, "body," which better corresponds with "bone." drieth--as if the marrow were exhausted.Read the comment
Topics related to Proverbs 17:22
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Proverbs 17
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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