Proverbs 13:20

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
walketh	הוֹלֵ֣ךְ ha.lokh	H1980	to walk (in a great variety of applications · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
wise	חֲכָמִ֣ים cha.kha.Mim	H2450	wise · adjective, masculine plural absolute
wise	יֶחְכָּ֑ם va.cha.kham	H2449	to be wise (in mind · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
companion	וְרֹעֶ֖ה ve.ro.'Eh	H7462	to tend a flock · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
fools	כְסִילִ֣ים khe.si.Lim	H3684	properly · adjective, masculine plural absolute
destroyed	רוּעַ rûwaʻ	H7321	to mar (especially by breaking)

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

1 Corinthians 15:33-34 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
Proverbs 15:31 The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.
Proverbs 9:6 Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath li…
Psalms 119:63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.
Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of…
Proverbs 1:11-19 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
Malachi 3:16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written befor…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 13:20

Note, 1. Those that would be good must keep good company, which is an evidence for them that they would be good (men's character is known by the company they choose) and will be a means of making them good, of showing them the way and of quickening and encouraging them in it. He that would be himself wise must walk with those that are so, must choose such for his intimate acquaintance, and converse with them accordingly; must ask and receive instruction from them, and keep up pious and profitable talk with them. Miss not the discourse of the elders, for they also learned of their fathers, Ecclesiasticus 8:9. And (Ecclesiasticus 6:35), Be willing to hear every godly discourse, and let not the…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 13:20

The benefits of good and evil of bad society are contrasted.

John Gill on Proverbs 13:20

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise,.... Who is a companion of them that fear the Lord; converses frequently with them in private about spiritual and experimental things, and walks with them in public in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord; he by those means grows wiser and wiser, gains a large stock of spiritual knowledge and experience; for this holds good both in natural and spiritual wisdom, a man of any capacity at all will improve by keeping wise company; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed; the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "shall become like them"; be a fool as they are, and grow still more and more foolish. The Septuagint version is, "shall be known"…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 13:20

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 הלוך, for the connection of the (meant imperatively) infin. absol. with an imper. (meant conclusively) is not tenable; but הלוך is an imper. form established by הלכוּ, Jer 51:50 (cf. הלוך = לכת, Num 22:14), and appears to have been used with such shades of conception as here as intercourse and companionship for לך. Regarding ירוע gnid, vid., at Pro…

The Church Fathers

He who walks with the wise will be wise, etc. To walk with the wise is to imitate the actions of the wise. Therefore, however simple and rustic one may be, who cannot comprehend the secrets of wisdom, if he nevertheless follows the examples of the wise by living, he will rightly be counted among the wise. But he who loves the foolish, not because of their nature, since they are men, but because of their foolishness, whether as mimes or actors, or such like, not to correct by instructing, but to make them worse by favoring: such a one, though he seems wise by wit and doctrine, will be held worthy of the mark and condemnation of fools.
— Bede, Commentary on Proverbs

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Company · EVIL — EVIL
Fools · The company of, ruinous — The company of, ruinous

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Proverbs 13:20

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 13:20

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 13:20

John Gill on Proverbs 13:20

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 13:20

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 13:20

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 13:20

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 13:20

John Gill on Proverbs 13:20

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 13:20

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 13:20

Rashi on Proverbs 13:20