Don’t befriend a hot-tempered man, and don’t associate with one who harbors anger:
Parallel translations
- KJV Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:
- BSB Do not make friends with an angry man, and do not associate with a hot-tempered man,
- ESV Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man,
- NKJV Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go,
- NASB ¶Do not make friends with a person given to anger, Or go with a hot-tempered person,
- NLT Don’t befriend angry people or associate with hot-tempered people,
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Do not form close friendships with an angry, hot-tempered person.
Overview
Proverbs repeatedly warns that companions shape character, and an angry person is dangerous company. The instruction is not to despise such a person but to avoid the intimacy of friendship that would influence one's own habits. Scripture elsewhere urges believers to put away wrath and instead bear with one another in love (Eph. 4:31-32).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Prov 29:22An angry man stirs up strife, and a wrathful man abounds in sin.
- 2 Cor 6:14–17Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
- Prov 21:24The proud and haughty man, “scoffer” is his name; he works in the arrogance of pride.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 22:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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