the Week of Proper 23 / Ordinary 28
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Proverbs 17:22
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- InternationalParallel Translations
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength.
A cheerful heart is a good medicine; But a broken spirit dries up the bones.
A happy heart is like good medicine, but a broken spirit drains your strength.
A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
A cheerful heart makes good medicine, But a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
A happy heart is good medicine and a joyful mind causes healing, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
A ioiful soule makith likinge age; a sorewful spirit makith drie boonys.
A merry heart is a good medicine: but a broken spirit drieth up the bones.
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
If you are cheerful, you feel good; if you are sad, you hurt all over.
A cheerful heart is a good medicine; But a broken spirit drieth up the bones.
A glad heart makes a healthy body, but a crushed spirit makes the bones dry.
A happy heart is good medicine, but low spirits sap one's strength.
A joyful heart promoteth healing; but a broken spirit drieth up the bones.
Happiness is good medicine, but sorrow is a disease.
A merry heart is a good medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
A merrie heart doth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
A glad heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.
A ioyfull heart causeth good health: but a sorowfull minde dryeth the bones.
A merry heart makes the body healthy; but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
Being cheerful keeps you healthy. It is slow death to be gloomy all the time.
A joyful heart, worketh an excellent cure, - but, a stricken spirit, drieth up the bone.
A joyful mind maketh age flourishing: a sorrowful spirit drieth up the bones.
A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.
A mery heart make a lustie age: but a sorowfull minde dryeth vp the bones.
A glad heart promotes health; but the bones of a sorrowful man dry up.
A joyful heart is good medicine,but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
A cheerful heart makes good medicine, But a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit will dry out bones.
A cheerful heart makes good healing, but a stricken spirit dries the bone.
A rejoicing heart doth good to the body, And a smitten spirit drieth the bone.
A mery herte maketh a lusty age, but a sorowfull mide dryeth vp ye bones.
A cheerful disposition is good for your health; gloom and doom leave you bone-tired.
A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.
A merry heart does good, like medicine, [fn] But a broken spirit dries the bones.
A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.
A glad heart is good medicine,But a broken spirit dries up the bones.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
merry: Proverbs 12:25, Proverbs 15:13, Proverbs 18:14, Ecclesiastes 9:7-9, Romans 5:2-5
like a medicine: Heb. to a medicine
a broken: Psalms 22:15, Psalms 32:3, Psalms 32:4, Psalms 102:3-5, 2 Corinthians 2:7, 2 Corinthians 7:10
Reciprocal: Nehemiah 8:10 - the joy Psalms 102:5 - the voice Proverbs 14:30 - rottenness Proverbs 15:15 - but Proverbs 15:30 - a good Isaiah 66:14 - your bones
Cross-References
Abram bowed down with his face to the ground, and God said to him,
I will make you extremely fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you.
I will give the whole land of Canaan—the land where you are now residing—to you and your descendants after you as a permanent possession. I will be their God."
Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep the covenantal requirement I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.
Then God said to Abraham, "As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; Sarah will be her name.
The Lord went on his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham. Then Abraham returned home.
The Lord said to Moses: "Thus you will tell the Israelites: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken with you from heaven.
The Lord spoke face to face with you at the mountain, from the middle of the fire.
The Lord 's messenger touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of his staff. Fire flared up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread. The Lord 's messenger then disappeared.
As the flame went up from the altar toward the sky, the Lord 's messenger went up in it while Manoah and his wife watched. They fell facedown to the ground.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
A merry heart doth good [like] a medicine,.... Does the body good, makes it healthful and vigorous. Cheerfulness of spirit has a great influence upon the body, and much contributes to the health and welfare of it; see Ecclesiastes 9:7; and especially a heart full of spiritual joy, peace of conscience, flowing from the blood of Christ, joy in the Holy Ghost, a rejoicing in Christ Jesus and his righteousness, and in hope of the glory of God, much affect even the outward man. Or, "a merry heart makes a good medicine" x; it is a good medicine of itself; raises the spirits, invigorates the body, and fits it for service and business: or, "does a medicine good" y; makes that operate kindly, and to a good purpose: or, as Jarchi, makes the countenance shine well, makes a serene countenance; which Schultens approves, and, from the use of the word in the Arabic language, confirms;
but a broken spirit drieth the bones; a spirit broken with sorrow, whether on spiritual or temporal accounts; as it weakens the nerves, it dries up the marrow in the bones, and emaciates the body, and reduces it to a skeleton: the joy or grief of the mind, those passions of the soul, have a very great influence upon the body, either for its good or hurt.
x לב שמח ייטב גהה "cor hilare bonam facit sanationem", Michaelis. y So R. Joseph Kimchi; "bonificat sive meliorem reddit medicinam", some in Valablus; "bene medicinam facit", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Doeth good like a medicine - Better, worketh a good healing. Omit “like.”
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Proverbs 17:22. A 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, &c. All these work death.
