Proverbs 18 Two Very Different Translations on Friendship
I'm compelled to stop here after discovering the broad difference in translations of this verse:
Pro 18:24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. King James
Pro 18:24 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. -ESV
The first part of the sentence contains the discrepancy. Matthew Henry's commentary illustrates the way I've interpreted it until now:
"Solomon here recommends friendship to us, and shows, 1. What we must do that we may contract and cultivate friendship; we must show ourselves friendly. Would we have friends and keep them, we must not only not affront them, or quarrel with them, but we must love them, and make it appear that we do so by all expressions that are endearing, by being free with them, pleasing to them, visiting them and bidding them welcome, and especially by doing all the good offices we can and serving them in every thing that lies in our power; that is showing ourselves friendly."
I think I've taught it to my children this way too---stick your neck out, take efforts to go beyond your comfort zone to "be friendly" and thus "accumulate friends."
However, if the ESV is more accurate, the first clause has an entirely different rendering and connotation. The Pulpit Commentary agrees:
"A man that hath friends must show himself friendly. The Authorized Version is certainly not correct. The Hebrew is literally, a man of friends will come to destruction. The word הִתְרוֹעֵעַ (hithroea) is the hithp, infinitive of רעע, "to break or destroy" (comp. Isa_24:19); and the maxim means that the man of many friends, who lays himself out to make friends of bad and good alike, does so to his own ruin. They will fled upon him, and exhaust his resources, but will not stand by him in the day of calamity, nay, rather will give a helping hand to his downfall. It is not the number of so called friends that is really useful and precious."
-Pulpit Commentary
"Without determining for certain which of the various renderings of the first clause of this verse should be adopted, there can be little doubt that it points to the difficulty of maintaining a wide circle of friends in true affection, contrasted with the blessedness of enjoying one deep and real friendship." -Pulpit
Pro 18:24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. King James
Pro 18:24 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. -ESV
The first part of the sentence contains the discrepancy. Matthew Henry's commentary illustrates the way I've interpreted it until now:
"Solomon here recommends friendship to us, and shows, 1. What we must do that we may contract and cultivate friendship; we must show ourselves friendly. Would we have friends and keep them, we must not only not affront them, or quarrel with them, but we must love them, and make it appear that we do so by all expressions that are endearing, by being free with them, pleasing to them, visiting them and bidding them welcome, and especially by doing all the good offices we can and serving them in every thing that lies in our power; that is showing ourselves friendly."
I think I've taught it to my children this way too---stick your neck out, take efforts to go beyond your comfort zone to "be friendly" and thus "accumulate friends."
However, if the ESV is more accurate, the first clause has an entirely different rendering and connotation. The Pulpit Commentary agrees:
"A man that hath friends must show himself friendly. The Authorized Version is certainly not correct. The Hebrew is literally, a man of friends will come to destruction. The word הִתְרוֹעֵעַ (hithroea) is the hithp, infinitive of רעע, "to break or destroy" (comp. Isa_24:19); and the maxim means that the man of many friends, who lays himself out to make friends of bad and good alike, does so to his own ruin. They will fled upon him, and exhaust his resources, but will not stand by him in the day of calamity, nay, rather will give a helping hand to his downfall. It is not the number of so called friends that is really useful and precious."
-Pulpit Commentary
"Without determining for certain which of the various renderings of the first clause of this verse should be adopted, there can be little doubt that it points to the difficulty of maintaining a wide circle of friends in true affection, contrasted with the blessedness of enjoying one deep and real friendship." -Pulpit
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