17:22
Notice the parallel parts that contrast in meaning:
22a
A joyful heart is good medicine,
22b but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
This verse contrasts the effects of cheerfulness and depression on a person’s health. The words “heart” and “spirit” are figures of speech that represent the entire person. No distinction is intended here between “heart” and “spirit.”
17:22a
A joyful heart is good medicine: This clause is a metaphor that compares a joyful heart to good medicine. The similarity is that both have positive effects on a person’s health and strength. Some other ways to translate this metaphor are:
• Change it to a simile. For example:
A happy heart is like good medicine (New Century Version)
• Change it to a simile and make the similarity explicit. For example:
A merry heart strengthens a person’s body like good medicine.
• Translate the meaning without the figure of speech. For example:
Being cheerful keeps you healthy. (Good News Translation)
-or-
A cheerful heart brings good healing (NET Bible)
-or-
If you are happy, it improves your health
A joyful heart: The phrase joyful heart means that a person’s inner being is glad or joyful. The Berean Standard Bible translates the same Hebrew phrase as “joyful heart” in 15:13a and as “cheerful heart” in 15:15b.
17:22b
but a broken spirit: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as broken is literally “beaten/crushed.” The phrase a broken spirit means that a person feels depressed or very discouraged. The Berean Standard Bible translates the same Hebrew phrase as “crushes the spirit” in 15:13b and as “a broken spirit” in 18:14b.
dries up the bones: The bones were regarded as the source of the body’s health and strength. They also represented the whole body. In this context, the meaning of the whole clause is that depression gradually lessens a person’s health and strength.
The Berean Standard Bible translates similar phrases as “rots the bones” and “like decay in his bones” in 14:30b and 12:4b, respectively. Those phrases may refer to an illness such as cancer. The phrase here probably has a more general meaning.
Some other ways to translate the whole clause are:
but low spirits sap one’s strength (Revised English Bible)
-or-
but depression gradually ruins your health
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