A Verse About Friends

Question

What is the correct translation of Proverbs 18:24? I have found out that there are different words for ‘Friend’. What is the difference where the English translation renders two different Hebrew words as friend?

Answer

Understanding the Bible can be a very tricky but rewarding business.

This verse has two halves which I translate as follows (Your question on the different words for friends will be answered at the end)

Part a) Make friends to become a “man of friends”
Part b) Among those who love you some cling more than a brother.

No one disagrees with the above translations. But I now bring 3 commentators and show how they interpret the verse differently WHILE AGREEING ON THE ABOVE 2 INTERPRETATIONS

In translating these verses I use CAPS to indicate transitional words on which the scholars disagree.

RASHI, IBN EZRA

Make friends to become a “man of friends” BECAUSE
Among those who love you some cling more than a brother.

RALBAG

ALTHOUGH YOU SHOULD Make friends to become a “man of friends” NEVERTHELESS SEEK OUT THOSE WHO LOVE YOU SINCE
Among those who love you some cling more than a brother.

I think the different approach is clear.

Rashi and Ibn Ezra see the two verse halves as connected by CAUSE. To Rashi and Ibn Ezra the word FRIEND and LOVE are the same. They translate

Create friends to become a man of friends BECAUSE friends can stick up for you more than a brother

The Ralbag however see the two verse halves as CONTRASTIVE. Ralbag sees FRIEND and LOVE as two LEVELS of friendship. Hence Ralbag interprets

You should Create friends to become a man of friends; BUT in real need those who love you can stick up for you more than a brother.

I have no way of deciding which translation is best. They represent two approaches. All approaches agree that a person should make friends. All approaches agree that a TRUE FRIEND can be better than a relative. I think Ralbags point is that ORDINARY FRIENDS are nice to have but wont be better than a brother – so you should try and find TRUE FRIENDS who will stick up for you more than a brother.

Wishing you well in your study of the Bible,
Dr. Russell Jay Hendel;

Follow-up question

Question

I thank you for the time you spent. I draw your attention to the following translation I found:

A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother

…may come to ruin is what has bothered me. lehisro’eia seem to be the difficulty. What would you say about these other translations to point to the negative side of this kind of relationship?

Answer

Thank you for your follow up question. The traditional Jewish commentaries universally reject the alternate interpretation you give above. I will be happy to provide a non-technical defense.

First some background:

Point 1: The verse has two contrastive halves
– a) A person of FRIENDS, LHITROAYAH [not yet sure on meaning]
– b) Because someone who loves you is better than a brother

Point 2: The Hebrew root Resh-Ayin can equally mean, FRIEND, and BROKEN. Thus on the one hand Resh-Ayin can mean FRIEND, SHEPARD, etc. while on the other hand Resh-Ayin can mean BREAK, DEPRESSION (Fragmented thoughts), FRAGMENTED musical notes. We will now use these meanings to explain a-b above using several approaches.

APPROACH 1: Make the verse very contrastive.
a) If you ONLY get friends you will be broken and doublecrossed
b) But if someone truly likes you it is better than a brother

APPROACH 2a: Make the verse complementive:
a) A friendly person SHOULD have many FRIENDS
b) But the friends who truly love him will be better than a brother

APPROACH 2b: Make the two verse halves identical
a) Make your self many friends
b) For a true friend loves you and is better than a brother.

As promised these approaches alternatively interpret LHITROAYAH as meaning BREAK, or BEFRIEND.

But the real hard part of the verse is NOT WHAT THE WORDS MEANS but rather HOW THE TWO HALVES FIT TOGETHER.

Go back and look at APPROACH 1: Does it make sense to say that friends always double cross you? Probably not. Most friends arent that bad. Now look at APPROACH 2a: Does it make sense to say that there are two levels of friends: ordinary friends and those who truly love you.

You see my point. It is wrong to approach the verse’s meaning thru an analysis of words. The words of the verse are ambiguous and can mean anything. Rather the correct approach is to study how the two verse halves fit together.

I think the most reasonable approach is that the verse is defining two levels of friendship: a) Make lots of friends b) because a few of them will really love you and be better than a brother.

There are technical ways of assessing whether LHITROAYAH comes from the root BROKEN or FRIEND (Resh-Vav-Ayin vs Resh-Ayin-Hey). I will not get into this here because it is too technical. I rather took an approach based on fitting the two verse halves together. I did this because the words had ambiguity. I also did this because I think it a clearer way to settle the true meaning.

I hope the above analysis enriches your understanding of the Bible.