“An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones…A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones” (Proverbs 12:4, 14:30).
Cancer of the bones is called osteosarcoma. It sounds like a dreadful form of this horrific disease. No right-thinking person would desire such an affliction to be a reality of their daily existence.
According to Solomon, there are at least two things which are comparable in misery and agony to osteosarcoma—a wife who brings shame to her husband and envy.
A woman who makes ungodly choices, especially ones which betray her husband’s trust and vulnerabilities and which renege upon her marital vows of monogamous virtue, inflicts pain on her husband’s heart and soul. She hurts him all the way “down to the bone”. A virtue-less wife is like osteosarcoma.
Envy is equally hideous. It is spiritually toxic and socially noxious. This taproot of such forms of Marxist government as Communism and Socialism is evil. While it will ever seek to destroy others, envy will always devastate the heart and soul of its possessor. Envy is bad all the way “down to the bone”. Envy is like osteosarcoma.
