A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Parallel translations
- WEB A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
- BSB A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up 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 merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
- Prov 12:25Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.
- Prov 18:14The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?
- 2 Cor 7:10For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
- Rom 5:2–5By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
- Eccl 9:7–9Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
- 2 Cor 2:7So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
- Ps 102:3–5For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
- Ps 32:3–4When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
- Ps 22:15My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into 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.