English Standard Version
Proverbs 17:22
22A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed 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.
- New King James Version (NKJV)A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.
- New Living Translation (NLT)A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.
Context of Proverbs 17:22
20A man of crooked heart does not discover good, and one with a dishonest tongue falls into calamity. 21He who sires a fool gets himself sorrow, and the father of a fool has no joy. A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. 23The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice. 24The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on 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 man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.
- Proverbs 15:13A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.
- Proverbs 18:14A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?
- Ecclesiastes 9:7Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
- Romans 5:2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
- Psalms 22:15my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
- Psalms 32:3For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
- Psalms 102:3For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.
- 2 Corinthians 2:7so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
- 2 Corinthians 7:10For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas 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
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries