Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 22:24
Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:
24. an angry man ] Better, a man that is given to anger, R.V. Lit a lord of anger. , LXX.; homini iracundo, Vulg.
furious ] Rather, wrathful, R.V.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 24. Make no friendship with an angry man] Spirit has a wonderful and unaccountable influence upon spirit. From those with whom we associate we acquire habits, and learn their ways, imbibe their spirit, show their tempers and walk in their steps. We cannot be too choice of our company, for we may soon learn ways that will be a snare to our soul.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Into his company; not converse frequently and familiarly with him, as friends use to do.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24, 25. (Compare Pro 2:12-15;Pro 4:14).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Make no friendship with an angry man,…. Do not associate with him; contract not a familiarity with him; make him not a companion; take him not into an intimacy, or use him as a particular friend and acquaintance: a man should be courteous, and carry it civilly to all men; but he should take care whom he admits as his bosom friend; he should be cautious in his choice of a familiar friend, and not receive any; and, among the rest, avoid an angry and passionate man, one who is much given to passion himself, and stirs it up in others; for there can be no lasting peace and pleasure in such a man’s company and conversation;
and with a furious man thou shall not go: not take a walk with him, much less a journey; or shall not be frequently together. It may be rendered, “unto a man of wraths”, or of great wrath and “fury, thou shall not come”; not enter into his house, nor seek his company, and court his conversation, which rather should be shunned.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Another tetrastich follows:
24 Have no intercourse with an angry man,
And with a furious man go thou not;
25 Lest thou adopt his ways,
And bring destruction upon thy soul.
The Piel , Jdg 14:20, signifies to make or choose any one as a friend or companion ( , ); the Hithpa. (cf. at Pro 18:24), to take to oneself (for oneself) any one as a friend, or to converse with one; sounds like , Isa 41:10, with Pathach of the closed syllable from the apocope. The angry man is called , as the covetous man , Pro 23:2, and the mischievous man , Pro 24:8; vid., regarding at Pro 1:19 and Pro 18:9. is related superlat. to , Pro 15:18 (cf. Pro 29:22), and signifies a hot-head of the highest degree. is meant as warning (cf. Pro 16:10). , or , Psa 26:4, to come along with one, is equivalent to go into fellowship or companionship with one, which is expressed by , Pro 13:20, as means, Jos 23:7, Jos 23:12, to enter into communion with one, venire in consuetudinem . This is not a trace of a more recent period of the language. Also , discas , cannot be an equivalent for it: Heb. poetry has at all times made use of Aramaisms as elegancies. , Arab. , , Arab. alifa , signifies to be entrusted with anything = to learn ( Piel , to teach, Job 15:15, and in Elihu’s speeches), or also to become confidential with one (whence , companion, confidant, Pro 2:17); this is never a Heb. prose word; the bibl. is only used at a later period in the sense of teacher. .reh are the ways, the conduct (Pro 2:20, etc.), or manner of life (Pro 1:19) which any one enters upon and follows out, thus manners as well as lot, condition. In the phrase “to bring destruction,” is used as in our phrase Schaden nehmen [to suffer injury]; the ancient language also represented the forced entrance of one into a state as a being laid hold on, e.g., Job 18:20, cf. Isa 13:8; here is not merely equivalent to danger (Ewald, falsely: that thou takest not danger for thy soul), but is equivalent to destruction, sin itself is a snare (Pro 29:6); to bring a snare for oneself is equivalent to suffer from being ensnared. Whosoever comes into a near relation with a passionate, furious, man, easily accommodates himself to his manners, and, hurried forward by him and like him to outbreaks of anger, which does that which is not right before God, falls into ruinous complications.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
24 Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: 25 Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.
Here is, 1. A good caution against being intimate with a passionate man. It is the law of friendship that we accommodate ourselves to our friends and be ready to serve them, and therefore we ought to be wise and wary in the choice of a friend, that we come not under the sacred tie to any one whom it would be our folly to accommodate ourselves to. Thought we must be civil to all, yet we must be careful whom we lay in our bosoms and contract a familiarity with. And, among others, a man who is easily provoked, touchy, and apt to resent affronts, who, when he is in a passion, cares not what he says or does, but grows outrageous, such a one is not fit to be made a friend or companion, for he will be ever and anon angry with us and that will be our trouble, and he will expect that we should, like him, be angry with others, and that will be our sin. 2. Good cause given for this caution: Lest thou learn his way. Those we go with we are apt to grow like. Our corrupt hearts have so much tinder in them that it is dangerous conversing with those that throw about the sparks of their passion. We shall thereby get a snare to our souls, for a disposition to anger is a great snare to any man, and an occasion of much sin. He does not say, “Lest thou have ill language given thee or get a broken head,” but, which is must worse, “Lest thou imitate him, to humour him, and so contract an ill habit.”
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Friendships to Avoid
Verses 24 and 25 advise against friendship with quick tempered or easily angered people, lest their conduct be an adverse influence, Pro 15:17-18; Pro 29:22; 1Co 15:33.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 22:24-25
AN INFECTIOUS AND DANGEROUS DISEASE
I. Friendship influences habit and thus moulds character. The reason given here for avoiding the companionship of an angry man is, lest thou learn his ways. This subject has been treated at length in chap. Pro. 13:20, page 326. There is great need when pestilence is abroad to avoid needless contact with infected persons and things. In every man there is more or less liability to disease which sometimes only needs a slight exposure to unhealthy influences to develop into a fatal activity. We are always living and moving amidst unhealthy and infectious moral influences which are hurtful to us, because of the tendency there is within us to go wrong; and it is therefore the mark of a wise man to avoid as much as possible all intimate contact with those who are manifestly under the dominion of sin. This proverb does not of course forbid such intercourse as is sought for the purpose of benefiting the vicious man.
II. A mans anger hurts himself more than those whom it leads him to injure. We should have expected that Solomon would advise us to avoid the angry man because of the injury he might do us when under the dominion of his passion, but instead of that he commands us to shun him because of the injury we shall do ourselves if we become like him. The wise man loses sight of the lesser danger in looking at the greater, and counts as nothing the harm an angry man can do to the body of a fellow-creature, in comparison with the grievous hurt he inflicts upon his own soul. And this is manifestly a correct view, whether we look at the present influence of passion or its remoter consequences. The man who receives an unmerited insult or injury may sustain no loss of dignity, nor suffer in any way in his spirit. But he who inflicts the injury becomes a meaner man in the very act, and creates a tempest of unrest within his own breast. And a blow which deals even death to an innocent man does not necessarily deprive him of any real good, but it creates a very hell of remorse for him whose anger prompted the deed. While Abel exchanged a blighted home here for an Eden in a brighter world, Cain wandered a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth.
OUTLINES AND SUGGSTIVE COMMENTS
Lest thou be infected by his example, or provoked by his passion to return the like to him. Either
(1) a mischief which is often the effect of unbridled rage, or
(2) an occasion of sin, either by drawing thee to an imitation or requital of his rage, or by tempting thee to unfaithfulness in performing the great office of a friendto wit, admonition or reproof, which, by reason of his furious temper, thou either canst not or wilt not do.Matthew Poole.
It may seem strange that we should be supposed in danger of learning what we feel to be so very disagreeable. And yet we may. As already hinted, a passionate man may have interesting and attractive qualities otherwise. Now, in proportion as we either admire or love him for these, will be the hazard of our thinking the less evil of his one defect, and trying to palliate and to smile at it. And there is no little truth in the saying, that we either are like our friends and intimates, or will soon be. But more than this. The sudden and often unreasonable heats of the passionate man are ever apt to fret and irritate our spirits, and thus to form a habit of resemblance by the very reaction upon ourselves of his hot and hasty temper.Wardlaw.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
24. Make no friendship (have no companionship) with an angry man One of violent temper a passionate man.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Second Saying (Tetrastitch) Pro 22:24-25 forms a single proverbial thought using four lines. This is called a tetrastitch. It warns us against befriending a person who cannot control his temper, lest we become like him and cause problems in our own lives.
Pro 22:24 Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:
Pro 22:25 Pro 22:24-25
BBE, “Do not be friends with a man who is given to wrath; do not go in the company of an angry man:”
The Geneva Bible translation notes read, “Have nothing to do with him that is not able to rule his affections: for he would hurt you by his evil conversation.” [126]
[126] The Geneva Bible translation notes, in The Bible, That is, the Holy Scriptures Containing the Old and New Testament, Translated According to the Hebrew and Greek, and Conferred With the Best Translations in Divers Languages (London: Robert Barker, 1615), notes on Proverbs 22:24-25.
Illustration – I came home one evening while living in Brown Trail Apartments and found my neighbor beaten and bloody, while holding a stick defending his home, wife and kids from a tall, strong man who was in a rage. My neighbor had befriended this poor, homeless guy, by allowing him to stay in his apartment for a while. Soon after, my neighbor began to ask this guy to leave. However, the guy was stubborn to leave. He was now having a difficult time with this person. When they went out drinking together one night, these two guys broke out into a drunken fight in front of our apartment, with his wife and children watching. He had befriended a man who could not control his temper.
Pro 22:24-25 Scripture Reference – Note a similar verse:
1Co 15:33, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
v. 24. Make no friendship with an angry man,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 22:24-25. Make no friendship with an angry man “By how much the more devoutly the laws of friendship among good men are to be observed, by so much the more it stands us upon to use all caution, even at the very first, in the prudent election of friends; and, let the dispositions and humours of our friends be what they will, so far as concerns ourselves only, they are by all means to be borne withal: but when they impose a necessity upon us to behave ourselves just as they would have us towards other men, it is a very hard and unreasonable condition of friendship. Wherefore it highly concerns us, as Solomon here admonishes, for the preservation of the peace and safety of our life, that we intermingle not our matters with men of cholerick nature, and such as easily provoke or undertake quarrels and debates; for such kinds of friends will perpetually engage us in contentions and factions, so that we shall be constrained either to break off friendship, or to be wanting to our own personal safety.” Lord Bacon’s Adv. of Learn. lib. 8: chap. 2. See also Duchal’s Sermons, vol. 1: serm. 18:
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 22:24 Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:
Ver. 24. Make no friendship with an angry man. ] Anger is a short madness; it is a leprosy breaking out of a burning, Lev 13:25 and renders a man unfit for civil society; for his unruly passions cause the climate where he lives to be like the torrid zone, too hot for any to live near him. The dog days continue with him all the year long; he rageth, and eateth firebrands, so that every man that will provide for his own safety must flee from him, as from a nettling, dangerous and unsociable creature, fit to live alone as dragons and wild beasts, or to be looked on only through a grate, as they; where, if they will do mischief, they may do it to themselves only: as Bajazet the great Turk, who, being taken by Tamerlane, and carried up and down in an iron cage, beat out his own brains against the bars thereof. a
a Turkish Hist.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
an angry man = a lord, or master, of anger.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 22:24-25
Pro 22:24-25
“Make no friendship with a man that is given to anger; And with a wrathful man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, And get a snare to thy soul.” This is a stern warning against association with any man given to angry and wrathful outbursts. Christians are commanded to be `slow to anger’ and “to be angry and sin not.’ Anger breeds anger; impatience breeds impatience; and association with such a man is dangerous, not only in the earthly sense, but also in the eternal sense. It can lead to the loss of one’s soul.
Pro 22:24. Of all the people in the world with which to make companions, what a poor companion an angry, wrathful man is! But some people are that way (quick-tempered, no judgment, etc.), and some make friends with them.
Pro 22:25. Like all companions, the close ties leave their influence (I. Cor. Pro 15:33). Thus, one who had been blessed with a good spirit and a calm, cool disposition begins flying off the handle and going into a senseless rage when everything doesnt go just right. Why? Because he has been around just such a man.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Pro 21:24, Pro 29:22, 2Co 6:14-17
Reciprocal: 1Sa 20:32 – what hath Psa 101:4 – know Pro 14:17 – that Pro 14:29 – but Pro 18:6 – his Pro 19:19 – man Pro 25:28 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 22:24-25. Make no friendship with an angry man As there is nothing more necessary than a friend, so a principal point of wisdom consists in the choice of him; concerning which, observe this rule among others, not to enter into any familiarity with a man prone to anger; and with a furious man thou shalt not go Shalt not associate, or be intimate; lest thou learn his ways Lest thou be infected by his example, or provoked by his wrath to return the like to him; and get a snare to thy soul Some mischief, which is often the effect of unbridled rage; or an occasion of, or temptation to sin, being led either to imitate him, or to neglect performing that great and important duty of a friend, the giving faithful and seasonable admonition and reproof, which thou mayest be induced to omit because of his furious temper.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
22:24 Make {o} no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:
(o) Have nothing to do with him that is not able to rule his affections: for he would hurt you by his evil conversation.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The influence of a hothead can prove detrimental (cf. Pro 1:10-19; Pro 14:17; Pro 14:29; Pro 15:1).