Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Parallel translations
- WEB Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
- KJV Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
- NKJV Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.
- NASB Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
- NLT Kind words are like honey— sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.
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
Kind words are sweet and healing, like honey to the soul and body. It matters because gracious speech genuinely nourishes and restores others.
Overview
This proverb likens pleasant words to a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healthful to the body. Encouraging speech has real power to comfort and heal. It reflects the value Scripture places on edifying words and points to the gracious speech that should mark followers of Christ (Ephesians 4:29).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Prov 12:18Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
- Prov 24:13–14Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.
- Prov 4:22For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body.
- Prov 25:11–12A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
- Prov 23:16My inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
- Ps 119:103How sweet are Your words to my taste—sweeter than honey in my mouth!
- Prov 3:8This will bring healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.
- Prov 27:9Oil and incense bring joy to the heart, and the sweetness of a friend is counsel to the soul.
- Ps 19:10They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
- Prov 15:26The LORD detests the thoughts of the wicked, but the words of the pure are pleasant to Him.
- Jer 15:16Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts.
- Deut 32:2Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.
- John 20:19–21It was the first day of the week, and that very evening, while the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. “Peace be with you!” He said to them.
- Prov 15:23A man takes joy in a fitting reply—and how good is a timely word!
- Song 4:11Your lips, my bride, drip sweetness like the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the aroma of Lebanon.
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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 16:24 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.