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.
- 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.
- 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 one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
- Prov 24:13–14My son, eat honey, for it is good; the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste:
- Prov 4:22For they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body.
- Prov 25:11–12A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
- Prov 23:16yes, my heart will rejoice, when your lips speak what is right.
- Ps 119:103How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!
- Prov 3:8It will be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones.
- Prov 27:9Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart; so does earnest counsel from a man’s friend.
- Ps 19:10More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb.
- Prov 15:26Yahweh detests the thoughts of the wicked, but the thoughts of the pure are pleasing.
- Jer 15:16Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies.
- Deut 32:2My doctrine will drop as the rain. My speech will condense as the dew, as the misty rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.
- John 20:19–21When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the middle, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
- Prov 15:23Joy comes to a man with the reply of his mouth. How good is a word at the right time!
- Song 4:11Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your 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.