Proverbs 17:22 - Exposition

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. So Aben Ezra, understanding the particle of comparison, which is not in the Hebrew. The ward translated "medicine" ( gehah ) occurs nowhere else, and probably means "healing" "relief." The clause is better rendered, a cheerful heart maketh a good healing (comp. Proverbs 15:13 ; Proverbs 16:25 ). Vulgate, aetatem floridam facit ; Septuagint, εὐεκτεῖν ποιεῖ , "makes one to be in good case." A cheerful, contented disposition enables a men to resist the attacks of disease, the mind, ms every one knows, having most powerful influence over the body. Ec 30:22, "The gladness of the heart is the life of man, and the joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days." A broken spirit drieth the bones; destroys all life and vigour (comp. Proverbs 3:8 ; Psalms 22:15 ; Psalms 32:4 ). We all remember the distich—

"A merry heart goes all the day,

Your sad tires in a mile-a."

So the rabbis enjoin, "Give ears no room in thine heart, for care hath killed many". Religious gladness is a positive duty, and "low spirits," as Isaac Williams says, "are a sin." Asks the Greek moralist—

ἄρ ἐστὶ συγγενές τι λύπη καὶ βίος

And Lucretius (3.473) affirms—

" Nam dolor ac morbus leti fabricator uterque est ."

"Workers of death are sorrow and disease."