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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 17:22 - 17:22
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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 down the condition of the body (Psychol. p. 199), vid., the similar contrasted phrases לֵב שָׂמֵחַ and רוּחַ נְכֵאָה, Pro 15:13. The ἄπ. λεγ. גֵּהָה (here and there in Codd. incorrectly written גֵּיהָה) has nothing to do with the Arab. jihat, which does not mean sight, but direction, and is formed from wjah (whence wajah, sight), like עֵדָה, congregation, from וָעַד (יָעַד). The Syr., Targ. (perhaps also Symmachus: ἀγαθύνει ἡλικίαν; Jerome: aetatem floridam facit; Luther: makes the life lüstig [cheerful]) translate it by body; but for this גֵּוָה (גֵּוִיָּה) is used, and that is a word of an entirely different root from גֵּהָה. To what verb this refers is shown by Hos 5:13 : וְלֹא־יִגְהֶה מִכֶּם מָזוֹר, and healed not for you her ulcerous wound. מָזוֹר is the compress, i.e., the bandage closing up the ulcer, then also the ulcer-wound itself; and גָּהָה is the contrary of עָלָה, e.g., Jer 8:22; it means the removing of the bandage and the healing of the wound. This is confirmed by the Syr. gho, which in like manner is construed with min, and means to be delivered from something (vid., Bernstein's Lex. Syr. to Kirsch's Chrestomathie). The Aethiop. quadriliteral gâhgěh, to hinder, to cause to cease, corresponds to the causative Syr. agahish. Accordingly גֵּהֶה means to be in the condition of abatement, mitigation, healing; and גֵּהָה (as synonym of כֵּהָה, Neh 3:19, with which Parchon combines it), levamen, levatio, in the sense of bodily healing (lxx εὐεκτεῖν ποιεῖ; Venet., after Kimchi, ἀγαθυνεῖ θεραπείαν); and הֵיטִיב גֵּהָה (cf. Pro 15:2) denotes, to bring good improvement, to advance powerfully the recovery. Schultens compares the Arab. jahy, nitescere, disserenari, as Menahem has done נָנַהּ, but this word is one of the few words which are explained exclusively from the Syriac (and Aethiop.). גֶּרֶם (here and at Pro 25:15) is the word interchanging with עֶצֶם, Pro 15:30; Pro 16:24.