Proverbs 3:8 - Exposition

It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. A metaphorical expression, denoting the complete spiritual health which shall follow from fearing the Lord and departing from evil. Health, ( riph'uth ); properly, healing ; LXX ; ιἅσις ; Vulgate, sanitas ; so Syriac and Arabic. The Targum Jonathan has medicina, "medicine," as the margin. The root rapha is properly "to sew together," and the secondary meaning, "to heal," is taken from the healing of a wound by sewing it up. Delitzsch, however, thinks riph'uth is not to be taken as a restoration from sickness, but as a raising up from enfeebled health, or a confirming of the strength which already exists. There shall be a continuance of health. Gesenius translates "refreshment." To thy navel ( l'shor'rekha ); Vulgate, umbilico tuo ; so Targum Jonathan. Shor is "the navel," here used synecdochically for the whole body, just as "head" is put for the whole man ( 5:30 ), "mouth" for the whole person speaking ( Proverbs 8:13 ), and "slow bellies" for depraved gluttons ( Titus 1:12 ) (Gejerus, Umbreit). The idea is expressed in the LXX ; Syriac, and Arabic by "to thy body" ( τῷ σώματι σου ; corpori tuo ) . The navel is here regarded as the centre of vital strength. For the word, see So Proverbs 7:2 ; Ezekiel 16:4 . This is the only place in the Proverbs where this word is found. Gesenius, however, takes shor, or l'shor'rekha, as standing col. lectively for the nerves, in which, he says, is the seat of strength, and translates accordingly, "Health ( i.e. refreshment) shall it be to thy nerves." Marrow ( shik'kuy ); literally, watering or moistening, as in the margin; Vulgate, irrigatio. Moistening is imparted to the bones by the marrow, and thus they are strengthened: "His bones are moistened with marrow" ( Job 21:24 ). Where there is an absence of marrow the drying up of the bones ensues, and hence their strength is impaired, and a general debility of the system sets in—they "wax old" ( Psalms 32:3 ). The effect of a broken spirit is thus described: "A broken spirit drieth up the bones" ( Proverbs 17:22 ). The physiological fact here brought forward is borne witness to by Cicero, 'In Tusc.:' "In visceribus atque medullis omne bonum condidisse naturam" (cf. Plato). The meaning of the passage is that, as health to the navel and marrow to the bones stand as representatives of physical strength, so the fear of the Lord, etc; is the spiritual strength of God's children.