Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
Parallel translations
- WEB Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
- BSB Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing 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 12:18There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
- Prov 24:13–14My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste:
- Prov 4:22For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
- Prov 25:11–12A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
- Prov 23:16Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
- Ps 119:103How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
- Prov 3:8It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
- Prov 27:9Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.
- Ps 19:10More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
- Prov 15:26The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words.
- Jer 15:16Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
- Deut 32:2My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
- John 20:19–21Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
- Prov 15:23A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!
- Song 4:11Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell 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.