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. (Proverbs 22:24-25 KJV)
24 Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, 25 lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare. (Proverbs 22:24-25 ESV)
24 Make no friendship with a man that is given to anger; And with a wrathful man thou shalt not go: 25 Lest thou learn his ways, And get a snare to thy soul. (Proverbs 22:24-25 ASV)
Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible
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. Though 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.”
Extract from Proverbs Appendix. See MHC for Pr 31:31
24. Of anger and meekness, Pr 12:16; Pr 14:17,29; Pr 15:1,18; Pr 16:32; Pr 17:12,26; Pr 19:11,19; Pr 22:24-25; Pr 25:15,28; Pr 26:21; Pr 29:22.