A joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
The wicked accepts a bribe in secret
to pervert the ways of justice.
The discerning sets his face towards wisdom,
but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
A foolish son is a grief to his father
and bitterness to her who bore him.
To impose a fine on a righteous man is not good,
nor to strike the noble for their uprightness.
Whoever restrains his words has knowledge,
and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.
Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise;
when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.Proverbs 17:22-28
The regular feature in Reader's Digest, 'Laughter the Best Medicine' is thoroughly scriptural in title, and this is the theme of 22, and one which has already been underlined in 12:25 and 15:13,15 (see Note for Saturday Nov. 24). One further comment may be added: true merriment is possible only for those who take life, and themselves, and God seriously. The best New Testament counterpart is the word 'joy'. 'Merriment' is a good translation of that apostolic word, because it is safeguarded from all parodies and caricatures by the serious undertones it must necessarily have. For the thought in 23, see 8. The RSV makes it clear that 'taketh' in AV means 'receiveth'. The emphasis is on the surreptitious nature of the transaction, and this is the connotation of the words 'underhand' and backhander', often used in such a context. The RSV rendering of 24, 'A man of understanding sets his face toward wisdom', makes the point of the verse clearer than the AV. The wise man's eyes look straight ahead, and concentration is the characteristic mark of his whole being. The AV, however, may be taken to mean that wisdom is there for the taking (in the sense in which this is emphasised in chapter 2), and not hard to come by. It is there for the fool also, but he does not see it, because of his restless and feckless attitude. He has no mind to learn it. Like those in 2 Timothy 3:7, he is 'ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth'. The sentiment expressed in 25 is an of-repeated one in Proverbs, as if to suggest that it is a distressingly common experience, frequently encountered. The RSV renders 'to punish' in 26 as 'to impose a fine': even to fine a righteous man is bad; how much more to flog noble men for their uprightness - this seems to be the force of the proverb (so Kidner). Again in 28 the RSV is better followed. The meaning is that it is the simpleton who is always babbling. An ever-active tongue is no commendation to the discerning. The general advice in 28 is: 'Don't be more of a fool than you can help'. If at last the fool learns to be quiet, he has begun to learn sense.