What Does Proverbs 15:30 Mean in the King James?
The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart: and a good report maketh the bones fat.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Good news is not merely information here: what is heard as good becomes nourishment all the way to the bones.
THE MEANING
Brightness in the eyes carries joy into the heart, and a welcome report reaches deeper still, like nourishment for the bones. The verse presents sight and hearing as ways that gladness and strength move through the whole person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that good news can only inform the mind and cannot touch the rest of you.
THE ROOT
שְׁמוּעָה טוֹבָה
shemuʿah tovah
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or heed.
“good report” in this verse is shemuʿah tovah. Shemuʿah is a report because it is something heard. The same root appears in shema, so the verse’s good news is not detached information: it is something received by hearing, and here that reception reaches the bones.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
The report belongs to the same family as hearing that calls for a response.
shemaʿ: A report, rumor, or news.
שֵׁמַע
This branch makes explicit that a report is what has been heard.
shomeaʿ: One who hears.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The root connects the message to the person receiving it.
תְּדַשֶּׁן
tedashshen
GROWS FROM
דשן
To grow fat or luxuriant; in this form, to make fat or enrich.
“maketh the bones fat” in this verse is tedashshen. The verse describes good news with an image of abundance reaching the bones. English can make “fat” sound like a surface change, while the root carries the sense of being enriched and made full.
ALSO GROWS
deshen: Fatness, richness, or abundance.
דֶּשֶׁן
It shows the root’s link between fatness and fullness.
dishshen: Made fat or enriched.
דִּשֵּׁן
This intensive form shares the action in “maketh the bones fat.”
מְאוֹר
meʾor
GROWS FROM
אוֹר
ʾwr
Light; to shine or illuminate.
The Hebrew word for the eyes’ light shares its root with the ordinary word for light. The image holds brightness in the eyes and joy in the heart together: what shines outward is joined to what rejoices inwardly.
ALSO GROWS
ʾor: Light.
אוֹר
The eyes’ light is part of the same word family as light itself.
meʾor: A light or luminary.
מְאוֹר
This form names a source of light, giving the phrase the sense of brightness carried in the eyes.
THE PATTERN
What reaches a person through sight or hearing can move inward as joy, trust, and nourishment.
Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.THE THREAD
As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.The Hebrew phrase shemuʿah tovah, “good report,” appears in both verses, joining them through the root of hearing. Here good news enriches the bones; there it refreshes like cold water, giving the same heard message two images of nourishment.
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