Proverbs 17:22
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
BSB
ASV
A cheerful heart is a good medicine; But a broken spirit drieth up the bones.
KJV
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine - Instead of גהה gehah, a medicine, it appears that the Chaldee and Syriac had read in their copies גוה gevah, the body, as they translate in this way. This makes the apposition here more complete: “A merry heart doeth good to the body; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” Nothing has such a direct tendency to ruin health and waste out life as grief, anxiety, fretfulness, bad tempers, etc. All these work death.
The effect of the mind on the body is well known. medicine--or, "body," which better corresponds with "bone." drieth--as if the marrow were exhausted.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Proverbs 12:25Anxiety weighs down the heart of a man, but a good word cheers it up.
leads to
A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance, but sorrow of the heart crushes the spirit.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of discipleship, to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning; He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.
A man takes joy in a fitting reply—and how good is a timely word!
Through
2 Corinthians 7:10Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
leads to
Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,
When they heard this, their objections were put to rest, and they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”
He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.
