Proverbs 17:22 (BSB)

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

From Proverbs 17. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 17:22

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 17:22: Note, 1. It is healthful to be cheerful. The Lord is for the body, and has provided for it, not only meat, but medicine, and has here told us that the best medicine is a merry heart, not a heart addicted to vain, carnal, sensual mirth; Solomon himself said of that mirth, It is not medicine, but madness; it is not food, but poison; what doth it?
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 17:22: A merry heart doth good like a medicine,.... Does the body good, makes it healthful and vigorous. Cheerfulness of spirit has a great influence upon the body, and much contributes to the health and welfare of it; see Ecc 9:7; and especially a heart full of spiritual joy, peace of conscience, flowing from the blood of Christ, joy in the Holy Ghost, a rejoicing in...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 17:22: (Compare Pro 14:30; Pro 15:13). The effect of the mind on the body is well known. medicine--or, "body," which better corresponds with "bone." drieth--as if the marrow were exhausted.
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 17:22: Pro 17:22 22 A joyful heart bringeth good recovery; And a broken spirit drieth the bones. The heart is the centre of the individual life, and the condition and the tone of the heart communicates itself to this life, even to its outermost circumference; the spirit is the power of self-consciousness which, according as it is lifted up or broken, also lifts up or breaks...