Health

HEALTH [ISBE]

HEALTH - helth (shalom, yeshu`ah, 'arukhah; riph'uth, 'arukhah; soteria, hugiaino): Shalom is part of the formal salutation still common in Palestine. In this sense it is used in Gen 43:28; 2 Sam 20:9; the stem word means "peace," and is used in many varieties of expression relating to security, success and good bodily health. Yeshu`ah, which specifically means deliverance or help, occurs in the refrain of Ps 42:11; 43:5, as well as in Ps 67:2; in the American Standard Revised Version it is rendered "help." Riph'uth is literally, "healing," and is found only in Prov 3:8. Marpe' also means healing of the body, but is used in a figurative sense as of promoting soundness of mind and moral character in Prov 4:22; 12:18; 13:17; 16:24, as also in Jer 8:15, where the Revised Version (British and American) renders it "healing." 'Arukhah is also used in the same figurative sense in Isa 58:8; Jer 8:22; 30:17; 33:6; literally means "repairing or restoring"; it is the word used of the repair of the wall of Jerusalem by Nehemiah (chapter 4).

The word "health" occurs twice in the New Testament: in Paul's appeal to his shipmates to take food (Acts 27:34), he says it is for their soteria, literally, "safety"; so the American Standard Revised Version, the King James Version "health." The verb hugianino is used in 3 Jn 1:2, in the apostle's salutation to Gaius.

Alexander Macalister