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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Proverbs 3:8

If you do this, it will be like a refreshing drink and medicine for your body.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Children;   Righteous;   Young Men;  

Dictionaries:

- Fausset Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, the Book of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Health;   Marrow;   Navel;   Proverbs, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Proverbs book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Bone;   Navel;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Health;   Marrow;   Navel;   Proverbs, Book of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
This will be healing for your bodyand strengthening for your bones.
Hebrew Names Version
It will be health to your body, And nourishment to your bones.
King James Version
It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
English Standard Version
It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
New Century Version
Then your body will be healthy, and your bones will be strong.
New English Translation
This will bring healing to your body, and refreshment to your inner self.
Amplified Bible
It will be health to your body [your marrow, your nerves, your sinews, your muscles—all your inner parts] And refreshment (physical well-being) to your bones.
New American Standard Bible
It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.
World English Bible
It will be health to your body, And nourishment to your bones.
Geneva Bible (1587)
So health shalbe vnto thy nauel, and marowe vnto thy bones.
Legacy Standard Bible
It will be healing to your bodyAnd refreshment to your bones.
Berean Standard Bible
This will bring healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.
Contemporary English Version
This will make you healthy, and you will feel strong.
Complete Jewish Bible
This will bring health to your body and give strength to your bones.
Darby Translation
it shall be health for thy navel, and moisture for thy bones.
George Lamsa Translation
It shall be healing to your flesh and marrow to your bones.
Good News Translation
If you do, it will be like good medicine, healing your wounds and easing your pains.
Lexham English Bible
There shall be healing for your flesh, and refreshment for your body.
Literal Translation
Healing shall be to your navel and marrow to your bones.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
so shal thy nauel be whole, and thy bones stronge.
American Standard Version
It will be health to thy navel, And marrow to thy bones.
Bible in Basic English
This will give strength to your flesh, and new life to your bones.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
King James Version (1611)
It shalbe health to thy nauill, and marrow to thy bones.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
So shall thy nauell be whole, and thy bones strong.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Then shall there be health to thy body, and good keeping to thy bones.
English Revised Version
It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For whi helthe schal be in thi nawle, and moisting of thi boonys.
Update Bible Version
It will be health to your navel, And marrow to your bones.
Webster's Bible Translation
It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
New King James Version
It will be health to your flesh, [fn] And strength [fn] to your bones.
New Living Translation
Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones.
New Life Bible
It will be healing to your body and medicine to your bones.
New Revised Standard
It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Healing, shall it be to thy body, and refreshing, to thy bones.
Douay-Rheims Bible
For it shall be health to thy navel, and moistening to thy bones.
Revised Standard Version
It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
Young's Literal Translation
Healing it is to thy navel, And moistening to thy bones.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.

Contextual Overview

7 Don't trust in your own wisdom, but fear and respect the Lord and stay away from evil. 8 If you do this, it will be like a refreshing drink and medicine for your body. 9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and the first part of your harvest. 10 Then your barns will be full of grain, and your barrels will be overflowing with wine. 11 My son, don't reject the Lord 's discipline, and don't be angry when he corrects you. 12 The Lord corrects the one he loves, just as a father corrects a child he cares about.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

shall: Proverbs 4:22, Proverbs 16:24, Psalms 147:3, Isaiah 1:6, Jeremiah 30:12, Jeremiah 30:13

health: Heb. medicine

thy: Ezekiel 16:4, Ezekiel 16:5

marrow: Heb. watering, or moistening, Job 21:24

Reciprocal: Proverbs 14:26 - fear Proverbs 14:30 - rottenness Proverbs 15:30 - the bones Song of Solomon 7:2 - navel Isaiah 58:11 - make fat Isaiah 66:14 - your bones

Cross-References

Genesis 3:1
The snake was the most clever of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. The snake spoke to the woman and said, "Woman, did God really tell you that you must not eat from any tree in the garden?"
Genesis 3:2
The woman answered the snake, "No, we can eat fruit from the trees in the garden.
Genesis 3:3
But there is one tree we must not eat from. God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch that tree, or you will die.'"
Genesis 3:9
The Lord God called to the man and said, "Where are you?"
Genesis 3:10
The man said, "I heard you walking in the garden, and I was afraid. I was naked, so I hid."
Genesis 3:12
The man said, "The woman you put here with me gave me fruit from that tree. So I ate it."
Genesis 3:21
The Lord God used animal skins and made some clothes for the man and his wife. Then he put the clothes on them.
Genesis 3:22
The Lord God said, "Look, the man has become like us—he knows about good and evil. And now the man might take the fruit from the tree of life. If the man eats that fruit, he will live forever."
Deuteronomy 4:33
You people heard God speaking to you from a fire, and you are still alive. Has that ever happened to anyone else? No!
Deuteronomy 5:25
But if we hear the Lord our God speak to us again, surely we will die! That terrible fire will destroy us. We don't want to die.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

It shall be health to thy navel,.... That part of the body which is the knot of the intestines; and may be put for the bowels and inward parts, which being sound, the body is in health; and these may be put for the whole body: and so the Septuagint version renders it, "to thy body"; and this may be put for the whole person. And the sense is, either wisdom, as Jarchi; the doctrine of wisdom, the Gospel; which teaches men to trust in the Lord, and not in themselves, to apply to him for wisdom, and not lean to their own understanding; this contributes much to a man's spiritual health and welfare: or else the fear of the Lord is of this use to men, both in soul and body; since by it they depart from those sins which bring diseases upon the body; and are influenced by it to the exercise of such graces, and the discharge of such duties, as are the means of keeping the soul in good plight;

and marrow to thy bones; or, "watering" m to them: that which irrigates and moistens them, and makes and keeps them strong and solid: see Job 21:24. What marrow is to the bones, that is wisdom, or the fear of God, to the souls of men; the means of establishing and strengthening them against sin, and snares and temptations, and to do the will and work of God.

m שקוי "irrigatio", V. L. Montanus, Tigurine version, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Amama, Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Navel - The central region of the body is taken as the representative of all the vital organs. For “health” we should read healing, or, as in the marg. There is probably a reference to the local applications used by the surgery of the period as means of healing.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 3:8. It shall be health to thy navel — We need not puzzle ourselves to find out what we may suppose to be a more delicate meaning for the original word שר shor than navel; for I am satisfied a more proper cannot be found. It is well known that it is by the umbilical cord that the fetus receives its nourishment all the time it is in the womb of the mother. It receives nothing by the mouth, nor by any other means: by this alone all nourishment is received, and the circulation of the blood kept up. When, therefore, the wise man says, that "trusting in the Lord with the whole heart, and acknowledging him in all a man's ways, c., shall be health to the navel, and marrow to the bones" he in effect says, that this is as essential to the life of God in the soul of man, and to the continual growth in grace, as the umbilical cord is to the life and growth of the fetus in the womb. Without the latter, no human being could ever exist or be born; without the former, no true religion can ever be found. Trust or faith in God is as necessary to derive grace from him to nourish the soul, and cause it to grow up unto eternal life, as the navel string or umbilical cord is to the human being in the first stage of its existence. I need not push this illustration farther: the good sense of the reader will supply what he knows. I might add much on the subject.

And marrow to thy bones. — This metaphor is not less proper than the preceding. All the larger bones of the body have either a large cavity, or they are spongious, and full of little cells: in both the one and the other the oleaginous substance, called marrow, is contained in proper vesicles, like the fat. In the larger bones, the fine oil, by the gentle heat of the body, is exhaled through the pores of its small vesicles, and enters some narrow passages which lead to certain fine canals excavated in the substance of the bone, that the marrow may supply the fibres of the bones, and render them less liable to break. Blood-vessels also penetrate the bones to supply this marrow and this blood; and consequently the marrow is supplied in the infant by means of the umbilical cord. From the marrow diffused, as mentioned above, through the bones, they derive their solidity and strength. A simple experiment will cast considerable light on the use of the marrow to the bones: - Calcine a bone, so as to destroy all the marrow from the cells, you will find it exceedingly brittle. Immerse the same bone in oil so that the cells may be all replenished, which will be done in a few minutes; and the bone reacquires a considerable measure of its solidity and strength; and would acquire the whole, if the marrow could be extracted without otherwise injuring the texture of the bone. After the calcination, the bone may be reduced to powder by the hand; after the impregnation with the oil, it becomes hard, compact, and strong. What the marrow is to the support and strength of the bones, and the bones to the support and strength of the body; that, faith in God, is to the support, strength, energy, and salvation of the soul. Behold, then, the force and elegance of the wise man's metaphor. Some have rendered the last clause, a lotion for the bones. What is this? How are the bones washed? What a pitiful destruction of a most beautiful metaphor!


 
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