Proverbs 17:22
New International Version
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

New Living Translation
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.

English Standard Version
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Berean Standard Bible
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

King James Bible
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

New King James Version
A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.

New American Standard Bible
A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.

NASB 1995
A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.

NASB 1977
A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Legacy Standard Bible
A glad heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Amplified Bible
A happy heart is good medicine and a joyful mind causes healing, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Christian Standard Bible
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

American Standard Version
A cheerful heart is a good medicine; But a broken spirit drieth up the bones.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
A merry heart improves the body and a depressed spirit dries the bones.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
A glad heart promotes health; but the bones of a sorrowful man dry up.

Contemporary English Version
If you are cheerful, you feel good; if you are sad, you hurt all over.

Douay-Rheims Bible
A joyful mind maketh age flourishing: a sorrowful spirit drieth up the bones.

English Revised Version
A merry heart is a good medicine: but a broken spirit drieth up the bones.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
A joyful heart is good medicine, but depression drains one's strength.

Good News Translation
Being cheerful keeps you healthy. It is slow death to be gloomy all the time.

International Standard Version
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit drains one's strength.

JPS Tanakh 1917
A merry heart is a good medicine; But a broken spirit drieth the bones.

Literal Standard Version
A rejoicing heart does good to the body, | And a struck spirit dries the bone.

Majority Standard Bible
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

New American Bible
A joyful heart is the health of the body, but a depressed spirit dries up the bones.

NET Bible
A cheerful heart brings good healing, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

New Revised Standard Version
A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.

New Heart English Bible
A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Webster's Bible Translation
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

World English Bible
A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Young's Literal Translation
A rejoicing heart doth good to the body, And a smitten spirit drieth the bone.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Better a Dry Morsel in Quietness
21A man fathers a fool to his own grief; the father of a fool has no joy. 22A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. 23A wicked man takes a covert bribe to subvert the course of justice.…

Cross References
Psalm 22:15
My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.

Proverbs 15:13
A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance, but sorrow of the heart crushes the spirit.

Proverbs 16:24
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Proverbs 18:14
The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?


Treasury of Scripture

A merry heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones.

merry

Proverbs 12:25
Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.

Proverbs 15:13
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

Proverbs 18:14
The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?

like a medicine

Psalm 22:15
My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

Psalm 32:3,4
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long…

Psalm 102:3-5
For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth…

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Body Bone Bones Broken Cheerful Crushed Downcast Dries Drieth Dry Glad Good Healing Healthy Heart Joyful Makes Medicine Merry Rejoicing Smitten Spirit
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Proverbs 17
1. Contrasts between the Righteous and the Wicked














(22) A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.--Or rather, Makes good a recovery., (For the duty of religious gladness, in gratitude for the love of God towards us, comp. Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:4.)

Verse 22. - A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. So Aben Ezra, understanding the particle of comparison, which is not in the Hebrew. The ward translated "medicine" (gehah) occurs nowhere else, and probably means "healing" "relief." The clause is better rendered, a cheerful heart maketh a good healing (comp. Proverbs 15:13; Proverbs 16:25). Vulgate, aetatem floridam facit; Septuagint, εὐεκτεῖν ποιεῖ, "makes one to be in good case." A cheerful, contented disposition enables a men to resist the attacks of disease, the mind, ms every one knows, having most powerful influence over the body. Ecclus. 30:22, "The gladness of the heart is the life of man, and the joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days." A broken spirit drieth the bones; destroys all life and vigour (comp. Proverbs 3:8; Psalm 22:15; Psalm 32:4). We all remember the distich -

"A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a."
So the rabbis enjoin, "Give ears no room in thine heart, for care hath killed many" (Dukes, p. 68). Religious gladness is a positive duty, and "low spirits," as Isaac Williams says, "are a sin." Asks the Greek moralist -

Ἄρ ἐστὶ συγγενές τι λύπη καὶ βίος And Lucretius (3:473) affirms -

"Nam dolor ac morbus leti fabricator uterque est."
"Workers of death are sorrow and disease."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
A joyful
שָׂ֭מֵחַ (mê·aḥ)
Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 8056: Glad, joyful, merry

heart
לֵ֣ב (lêḇ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3820: The heart, the feelings, the will, the intellect, centre

is good
יֵיטִ֣ב (yê·ṭiḇ)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3190: To be good, well, glad, or pleasing

medicine,
גֵּהָ֑ה (gê·hāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 1456: A healing, cure

but a broken
נְ֝כֵאָ֗ה (nə·ḵê·’āh)
Adjective - feminine singular
Strong's 5218: Smitten, afflicted

spirit
וְר֥וּחַ (wə·rū·aḥ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - common singular
Strong's 7307: Wind, breath, exhalation, life, anger, unsubstantiality, a region of the sky, spirit

dries up
תְּיַבֶּשׁ־ (tə·yab·beš-)
Verb - Piel - Imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 3001: To be ashamed, confused, disappointed, to dry up, wither

the bones.
גָּֽרֶם׃ (gā·rem)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1634: A bone, self, very


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart makes good medicine (Prov. Pro Pr)
Proverbs 17:21
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