A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
Parallel translations
- WEB A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
- KJV A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
- NKJV A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.
- NASB A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.
- NLT A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.
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
A joyful heart heals and strengthens, while inward despair wastes a person away. Our inner spiritual state powerfully affects our whole well-being.
Overview
This vivid proverb observes that cheerfulness functions like good medicine, while a crushed spirit drains vitality, drying up the 'bones' (the inner frame). It does not promise that gladness cures all illness, but recognizes the deep link between the heart and the body. True and lasting cheer flows from peace with God, and the gospel offers the joy of salvation (Ps. 51:12) and the comfort of Christ even amid suffering.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Prov 15:13A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance, but sorrow of the heart crushes the spirit.
- Prov 12:25Anxiety weighs down the heart of a man, but a good word cheers it up.
- Prov 18:14The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?
- 2 Cor 7:10Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
- Rom 5:2–5through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
- Eccl 9:7–9Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works:
- 2 Cor 2:7So instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
- Ps 102:3–5For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.
- Ps 32:3–4When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
- Ps 22:15My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 17:22 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.