Proverbs 18:24

A person who has friends ¹  may be harmed by them, ²  but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

1Sa 19:4,5; 1Sa 30:26-31; 2Sa 1:26; 2Sa 9:1-13; 2Sa 16:17; 2Sa 17:27-29; 2Sa 19:30-39; 2Sa 21:7; 1Ch 12:38-40; Pr 17:17; Pr 27:9; Mt 26:49,50; Joh 15:14,15

¹ tc The construction is “a man of friends” (cf. NASB) meaning a man who has friends (a genitive of the thing possessed). C. H. Toy, however, suggests reading יֵשׁ (yesh) instead of אִישׁ (’ish), along with some of the Greek mss, the Syriac, and Tg. Prov 18:24. It would then say “there are friends” who are unreliable (Proverbs [ICC], 366); cf. NLT. However, the MT should be retained here.

² tn The text simply has לְהִתְרֹעֵעַ (lÿhitro’ea’), which means “for being crushed” or “to be shattered” (but not “to show oneself friendly” as in the KJV). What can be made of the sentence is that “a man who has [many] friends [may have them] for being crushed” – the infinitive giving the result (i.e., “with the result that he may be crushed by them”).