Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.
Parallel translations
- WEB Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, but a kind word makes it glad.
- KJV Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.
- BSB Anxiety weighs down the heart of a man, but a good word cheers it up.
- NKJV Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.
- NASB Anxiety in a person’s heart weighs it down, But a good word makes it glad.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word makes it glad. Encouraging words can lift a burdened soul.
Overview
The proverb acknowledges the real weight of anxiety on the human heart and the power of a good word to bring gladness. It commends compassion in our speech toward the troubled. This points to the comfort God gives and to the encouraging ministry believers are to have toward one another, ultimately resting in the peace Christ provides.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Prov 16:24Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
- Prov 15:13A glad heart makes a cheerful face; but an aching heart breaks the spirit.
- Prov 17:22A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
- Isa 50:4The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
- Prov 15:23Joy comes to a man with the reply of his mouth. How good is a word at the right time!
- Prov 12:18There is one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
- Prov 27:9Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart; so does earnest counsel from a man’s friend.
- Zech 1:13Yahweh answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words.
- Ps 42:11Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.
- Prov 18:14A man’s spirit will sustain him in sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear?
- Prov 25:11A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
- 2 Cor 2:4–7For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made sorry, but that you might know the love that I have so abundantly for you.
- Ps 38:6I am pained and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long.
- Mark 14:33–34He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed.
- Prov 14:10The heart knows its own bitterness and joy; he will not share these with a stranger.
- Neh 2:1–2In the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, I picked up the wine, and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad before in his presence.
- Prov 15:15All the days of the afflicted are wretched, but one who has a cheerful heart enjoys a continual feast.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 12:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.