Tree of Life Version
Proverbs 17:22
22A cheerful 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.
- 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
20A perverse heart finds nothing good a devious tongue falls into trouble. 21Whoever fathers a fool gets grief. There is no joy for the father of a disgraceful son. A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. 23The wicked one receives a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice. 24Wisdom is before the person of understanding, 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 12:25An anxious heart weighs one down, but a good word cheers him up.
- Proverbs 15:13A joyful heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.
- Proverbs 18:14One’s spirit sustains him through illness, but who can bear a crushed spirit?
- Ecclesiastes 9:7Go! Eat your bread with gladness and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already accepted your deeds.
- Romans 5:2Through Him we also have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and boast in the hope of God’s glory.
- Psalms 22:15I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax— melting within my innards.
- Psalms 32:3When I kept silent, my bones became brittle through my groaning all day long.
- Psalms 102:3Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn Your ear to me— in the day I call, answer me quickly.
- 2 Corinthians 2:7So instead you should forgive him and encourage him. Otherwise such a person might be swallowed up by excessive sorrow.
- 2 Corinthians 7:10For the grief that God wills brings a repentance that leads to salvation, leaving no regret. But the world’s grief brings 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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