Proverbs 3:8
in Proverbs 3This will bring healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
It will be health to thy navel, And marrow to thy bones.
KJV
It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
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This verse in Proverbs 3
Commentary
7 notes on this verseIt shall be health to thy navel,.... That part of the body which is the knot of the intestines; and may be put for the bowels and inward parts, which being sound, the body is in health; and these may be put for the whole body: and so the Septuagint version renders it, "to thy body"; and this may be put for the whole person.
This site's exposition
Be not wise in your own eyes
on Proverbs 3:7-8
“Be not wise in your own eyes” restates the warning of verse 5 as self-estimation. Its pair, “fear the LORD and turn away from evil,” joins the book's motto to its practice. In this book the fear of the LORD shows itself in conduct.
This site's exposition
refreshment to your bones
The Hebrew reads navel, and John Gill notes that the Septuagint put body in its place, as the Berean does. Refreshment is literally drink to dry bones. To fear the LORD and turn away from evil brings healing to the whole body.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Indeed, health will be in your navel, etc. Solid works of virtues are in the bones, and in the navel, which is in the middle part of the inner body, is designed to signify the still weak and imperfect action of good deeds. Therefore, if …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Envy is the rottenness of the bones; the sorrow of the world dries them; but hope and joy in God are marrow to them. We must make a good use of our estates, and that is the way to increase them,
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
It shall be health to thy navel - We need not puzzle ourselves to find out what we may suppose to be a more delicate meaning for the original word שר shor than navel; for I am satisfied a more proper cannot be found. It is well known that it is by the umbilical cord that the fetus receives its nourishment all the time it is in the womb of the mother.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Navel - The central region of the body is taken as the representative of all the vital organs. For “health” we should read healing, or, as in the marg. There is probably a reference to the local applications used by the surgery of the period as means of healing.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| רִ֭פְאוּת | rifut | healing | H7500 → | |
| תְּהִ֣י | tehi | may it be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| לְשָׁרֶּ֑ךָ | lesharekha | to navel your | H8270 → | |
| וְ֝שִׁקּ֗וּי | veshikui | and refreshment | H8250 → | |
| לְעַצְמוֹתֶֽיךָ׃ | leatzmoteikha | to bones your | H6106 → | 126 times |
רִ֭פְאוּתhealing
rifutH7500 →
תְּהִ֣יmay it be
tehiH1961 →3559 times
לְשָׁרֶּ֑ךָto navel your
lesharekhaH8270 →
וְ֝שִׁקּ֗וּיand refreshment
veshikuiH8250 →
לְעַצְמוֹתֶֽיךָ׃to bones your
leatzmoteikhaH6106 →126 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 147:3He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 33:6
Nevertheless, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal its people and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 34:18
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.
- Job 5:18
For He wounds, but He also binds; He strikes, but His hands also heal.
- Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight…
- Isaiah 61:1
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty…
- Jeremiah 33:6
Through
Proverbs 16:24Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
it leads to
- Proverbs 12:18
Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 24:13–14
Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.
- Proverbs 12:18
Through
Proverbs 4:22For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body.
it leads to
- Proverbs 4:10
Listen, my son, and receive my words, and the years of your life will be many.
- Proverbs 4:10
Where this verse is studied
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.