📖 Biblical Definition
"Pleasant words" is Proverbs 16:24’s image of life-giving speech: "Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones." Solomon names the wisdom of speech that nourishes rather than abrades — the kind of words that build others up instead of tearing them down. The Hebrew noʿam ("pleasantness") is the same word David uses of YHWH’s own beauty: "to behold the beauty [no‘am] of the LORD" (Psalm 27:4). Pleasant words at their best therefore partake of divine pleasantness. Paul commands the same: "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers" (Ephesians 4:29).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Prov 16:24: words that nourish like honeycomb.
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Proverbs 16:24's image: "Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones." The wisdom of speech that nourishes rather than abrades. Hebrew imrei noam — sayings of pleasantness. Noam is the same noun used of YHWH's own beauty in Psalm 27:4 ("to behold the beauty [noam] of the LORD"). Pleasant words at their best are not bland flattery but words that share something of divine pleasantness — speaking truth gently, edifying, fitly-spoken (Prov 25:11).
📖 Key Scripture
Proverbs 16:24 — "Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones."
Proverbs 25:11 — "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."
Ephesians 4:29 — "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Pleasant words confused with flattery; biblical pleasant words are truthful and edifying, not just agreeable.
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Modern "pleasant words" can mean flattery — saying what people want to hear. Proverbs' pleasant words are nourishing, not appeasing. They tell the truth in a way that builds up. Bland flattery is honey-coating without honey-substance; pleasant words have actual sweetness because they have actual truth.
Recover the standard: edifying speech that ministers grace to hearers. Pleasant AND true. Not one or the other.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew imrei noam.
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['Hebrew', 'H561', 'emer', 'saying, word']
['Hebrew', 'H5278', 'noam', 'pleasantness, beauty']
Usage
"Pleasant words are honeycomb."
"Sweet to the soul, health to the bones."
"Pleasant AND true."