It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
Parallel translations
- WEB It will be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones.
- BSB This will bring healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.
- NKJV It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.
- NASB It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.
- NLT Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones.
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
Fearing God and shunning evil brings health to the body and refreshment to the bones. It matters because godly living benefits the whole person.
Overview
The reverent, obedient life described in verse 7 yields well-being, here pictured as bodily health and refreshment. Proverbs often links wisdom with general flourishing, though not as an absolute promise. It reflects the truth that God's ways are good for those who walk in them.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Prov 4:22For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
- Ps 147:3He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
- Prov 16:24Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
- Job 21:24His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.
- Ezek 16:4–5And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
- Isa 1:6From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
- Jer 30:12–13For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 3:8 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.