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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 13:20 - 13:20
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
20 Whoever goes with wise men, becomes wise;
And whoever has intercourse with fools, becomes base.
Regarding the significance of this proverb in the history of the religion and worship of Israel, vid., p. 39. We have translated 20a after the Kerı̂; the translation according to the Chethı̂b is: “go with wise men and become wise” (cf. Pro 8:33), not הָלוֹךְ, for the connection of the (meant imperatively) infin. absol. with an imper. (meant conclusively) is not tenable; but הֲלוֹךְ is an imper. form established by הִלְכוּ, Jer 51:50 (cf. הֲלוֹךְ = לֶכֶת, Num 22:14), and appears to have been used with such shades of conception as here as intercourse and companionship for לֵךְ. Regarding יֵרוֹעַ gnid, vid., at Pro 11:15; there it meant malo afficietur, here it means malus (pejor) fiet. The Venet. (contrary to Kimchi, who explains by frangetur) rightly has κακωθήσεται. There is here a play upon words; רָעָה means to tend (a flock), also in general to be considerate about anything (Pro 15:14; 44:20), to take care of anything with the accusative of the person (Pro 28:7; Pro 29:3), to hold intercourse with any one: he who by preference seeks the society of fools, himself becomes such (Jerome, similis efficietur), or rather, as ירוע expresses, he comes always morally lower down. “A wicked companion leads his associate into hell.”