Proverbs 17:22

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. A MERRY HEART DOETH GOOD (LIKE) A MEDICINE - or else, 'make good (i:e., effectual) medicine;' cf. margin: so Mercer. The same root as here [ geehah (H1456)] occurs in Hosea 5:13, "cure." Gesenius thinks the root-meaning to be the removal of the ligature of a wound. Quiet, diet, and cheerfulness flowing from a good conscience, are the best medicines (Proverbs 15:15; Proverbs 3:7; Proverbs 4:22)....

Verse Proverbs 17:22. _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, c. All these work _death_....

DOETH GOOD LIKE A MEDICINE - Better, worketh a good healing. Omit “like.”...

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 17:1 (Comp, Proverbs 15:16, Proverbs 15:17; Proverbs 16:8.) BETTER (sweeter) IS A DRY MORSEL, AND QUIETNESS THEREWITH. Dry bread was soaked in wine or water before it was eaten. Thus Boaz bid Ruth "dip her morsel in the vinegar" (Ruth 2:14); thus Jesus gave the sop to Judas when he had dipped it (John 13:26). The Septuagint is pleonastic, "Better is a morsel with joy in peace." Ab

A MERRY HEART DOTH GOOD [LIKE] A MEDICINE,.... Does the body good, makes it healthful and vigorous. Cheerfulness of spirit has a great influence upon the body, and much contributes to the health and welfare of it; see Ecclesiastes 9:7; and especially a heart full of spiritual joy, peace of conscience, flowing from the blood of Christ, joy in the Holy Ghost, a rejoicing in Christ Jesus and his righteousness, and in hope of the glory of God, much affect even the outward man. Or, "a merry heart makes a good medicine" x; it is a good medicine of itself; raises the spirits, invigorates the body, and fits it for service and business: or, "does a medicine good" y; makes that operate kindly, and to a good purpose: or, as Jarchi, makes the countenance shine well, makes a serene countenance; which Schultens approves, and, from the use of the word in the Arabic language, confirms;...

CHAPTER 17 DIVERSE PROVERBS Of the twenty-eight proverbs found in this chapter we point out but a few. “The fining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold; but the LORD trieth the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3). Man may try silver and gold, but God only the hearts. And He tries the hearts by the refining process, trials and afflictions, the process which rests in His own hands. (See Psalms 66:10; Malachi 3:3; 1 Peter 1:7 .) “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends” (Proverbs 17:9). To

PROVERBS 17. Fresh points are the rise of the able and clever slave to a place in the family (Proverbs 17:2), the practice of bribes (Proverbs 17:8; Proverbs 17:23), the value of adversity as a test of friendship (Proverbs 17:17): also the subject of suretyship, dealt with in Proverbs 6:1, is resumed (Proverbs 17:18). PROVERBS 17:1. For the connexion betwee

SPIRIT. Hebrew. _ruach._ App-9....

_doeth good_like _a medicine_ Rather, IS A GOOD MEDICINE, R.V. "Heb. _causeth good healing_," R.V. marg.; _giveth a happy healing_, Gesen.; εὐεκτεῖν ποιεῖ, LXX....

A MERRY HEART DOETH GOOD LIKE A MEDICINE— Dr. Grey renders this verse thus, _A merry heart doeth good to the body,_ or _flesh; but a broken spirit drieth the bones._ We often meet with this opposition, and the sense perhaps is more complete, especially if we leave out the word _like,_ which is not in the Hebrew. Houbigant translates it nearly in the same manner....