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 רעה, Judges 14:20, signifies to make or choose any one as a friend or companion (רעה, רע); the Hithpa. התרעה (cf. at Proverbs 18:24), to take to oneself (for oneself) any one as a friend, or to converse with one; אל־תּתרע sounds like אל־תּשׁתּע, Isaiah 41:10, with Pathach of the closed syllable from the apocope. The angry man is called בּעל אף, as the covetous man בּעל נפשׁ, Proverbs 23:2, and the mischievous man בּעל מזמּות, Proverbs 24:8; vid., regarding בּעל at Proverbs 1:19 and Proverbs 18:9. אישׁ חמות is related superlat. to אישׁ חמה, Proverbs 15:18 (cf. Proverbs 29:22), and signifies a hot-head of the highest degree. לא תבוא is meant as warning (cf. Proverbs 16:10). בּוא את, or בוא עם, Psalm 26:4, to come along with one, is equivalent to go into fellowship or companionship with one, which is expressed by הלך את, Proverbs 13:20, as בוא ב means, Joshua 23:7, Joshua 23:12, to enter into communion with one, venire in consuetudinem. This בוא את is not a trace of a more recent period of the language. Also תּאלף, discas, cannot be an equivalent for it: Heb. poetry has at all times made use of Aramaisms as elegancies. אלף, Arab. אלף, ילף, Arab. âlifa, signifies to be entrusted with anything equals to learn (Piel אלּף, to teach, Job 15:15, and in Elihu's speeches), or also to become confidential with one (whence אלּוּף, companion, confidant, Proverbs 2:17); this אלף is never a Heb. prose word; the bibl. אלּוּף is only used at a later period in the sense of teacher. ארחות .reh are the ways, the conduct (Proverbs 2:20, etc.), or manner of life (Proverbs 1:19) which any one enters upon and follows out, thus manners as well as lot, condition. In the phrase "to bring destruction," לקח 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. Isaiah 13:8; here מוקשׁ 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 (Proverbs 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.