Bible Strands
Proverbs 3:8
This will bring healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wise instructor addresses a student in a covenantal wisdom discourse, placing this promise between the commands to fear the Lord and turn from evil (Proverbs 3:7) and to honor God with material blessings (Proverbs 3:9).
The words — The Hebrew רִפְאוּת (Rif'ut) means "healing" and שִׁקּוּי (shiKui) means "refreshment," both directly applied to the recipient's "navel" (שָׁרָשׁ, sharesh) and "bones" (עַצְמוֹת, atsmot).
The thread — This imagery of divine renewal appears in Proverbs 4:22, which calls wisdom "health to the whole body," and Proverbs 16:24, which links wholesome words to "healing to the bones." It also echoes the broader biblical pattern where God heals the brokenhearted and binds wounds (Psalms 147:3).
Why it lands — The text states that obedience to God's commands produces tangible restoration, demanding the reader abandon self-reliance and accept divine renewal as the direct consequence of turning from evil.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 4:22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body.
- Psalms 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
- Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
- Job 21:24 His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow.
- Ezekiel 16:4 On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.
- Isaiah 1:6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.
- Jeremiah 30:12 For this is what the LORD says: “Your injury is incurable; your wound is grievous.