complete verse (Proverbs 17:22)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 17:22:

  • Kupsabiny: “If/when a person is joyful/happy his body is healthy,
    but if he is annoyed/angry, his bones breaks (he loses hope and strength).” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “A happy heart is like good medicine,
    If [you] are always feeling broken-hearted
    [your] bones will dry up.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “If you (sing.) are happy, it can-make- your (sing.) body -healthy/[lit. good], but if you (sing.) are sad, it can-make- you (sing.) -sick.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Happiness causes-(one)-to-be-strong like medicine, but sorrow, it causes- the body to-be-weak.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “Being cheerful is like swallowing good medicine;
    being discouraged/gloomy all the time will drain away your energy/cause you to become weak.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Proverbs 17:22

“A cheerful heart is a good medicine”: “A cheerful heart” translates the same Hebrew expression as used in 15.13, where it is rendered “a glad heart” by Revised Standard Version. See there for comments. “A good medicine” is literally “does good to the gehah,” a Hebrew word whose meaning is uncertain because it occurs only here in the Old Testament. Whybray relates it to a verb meaning “to heal.” In this case the line says “A cheerful heart [that is, being cheerful, joyful] causes good healing,” which can also be expressed “. . . causes a sick person to recover.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates the Hebrew text a “B” and translates it “A cheerful heart improves appearance” or “A cheerful heart hastens healing.” Revised English Bible says “A glad heart makes for good health,” and Moffatt has “A glad heart helps and heals.” Another way of expressing the line is “If you are always happy, sickness will not spoil your life.”

“But a downcast spirit dries up the bones”: This line contrasts with the first and is similar in thought to 14.30b. “A downcast spirit” translates the same Hebrew expression as used in 15.13, where it is rendered by Revised Standard Version as “spirit is broken,” meaning “despair” or “discouragement.” “Bones” as part of the body here represents the whole body. “Dries up the bones” contrasts with “makes for good healing” and means “to lose energy,” “go downhill in health,” or even “to die away,” that is, “to die slowly.” See 14.30b for a similar expression, “makes the bones rot.” Good News Translation says “It is slow death. . .,” and Revised English Bible “sap one’s strength.” We may render this line, for example, “but a despairing heart takes away a person’s strength.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 17:22

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

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.