Proverbs 3:8

8. Health to thy navel Rather, restoration to thy sinew, (sing. coll.,) and moistening (refreshment) to thy bones. The word שׁר , ( shor,) rendered navel in E.V., literally means a cord, and is sometimes, as in Ezekiel 16:4, applied to the umbilical cord; but in other places it seems to be used for sinews, muscles, or tendons of the body, or of a particular part of it, as Job 40:16, where the rendering probably should be, “the muscles of the belly.” In this place the word stands in parallelism with bones, and probably means the firmer muscular or tendinous parts, in contradistinction to the bony or more solid parts. Taken together, the terms mean the body. The muscles, sinews, or tendons, are the “cordage” of the body, by which the bones are both held in their places and moved. In order to sound health and longevity these need continual renovation, to repair and compensate the waste always taking place. This restoration is made by the proper distribution of the vital fluids to every part, perfectly irrigating the whole body, even the bones. This seems to be the imagery of the text, and the sentiment is, that piety and high mental cultivation, which are always in this book supposed to go hand in hand, tend to the preservation of health and the prolonging of life a fact which observation and experience have abundantly demonstrated. The average period of human life is greatly extended by the march of Christian civilization and enlightenment. That restraint ( musar, discipline, see note, Proverbs 1:2) which true religion, whether Mosaic or Christian, throws upon the passions and appetites that moderation and temperance which it enjoins in the use of earthly good that knowledge of physical laws which it promotes that serenity of mind which it inspires as also that sacredness with which it invests life all tend to the prolongation and happiness of earthly existence.