Proverbs 22:24-25

22:24 Do not make friends with an angry person, ¹ 

and do not associate with a wrathful person,

22:25 lest you learn ²  his ways

and entangle yourself in a snare. ³ 

Proverbs 25:8

25:8 Do not go out hastily to litigation, ⁴ 

or ⁵  what will you do afterward

when your neighbor puts you to shame?

Proverbs 25:28

25:28 Like a city that is broken down and without a wall,

so is a person who cannot control his temper. ⁶ 

Ecclesiastes 7:9

7:9 Do not let yourself be quickly provoked, ⁷ 

for anger resides in the lap ⁸  of fools.

Daniel 3:19-25

3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and his disposition changed ⁹  toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders ¹⁰  to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated. 3:20 He ordered strong ¹¹  soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. 3:21 So those men were tied up while still wearing their cloaks, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, ¹²  and were thrown into the furnace ¹³  of blazing fire. 3:22 But since the king’s command was so urgent, and the furnace was so excessively hot, the men who escorted ¹⁴  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were killed ¹⁵  by the leaping flames. ¹⁶  3:23 But those three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell into the furnace ¹⁷  of blazing fire while still securely bound. ¹⁸ 

God Delivers His Servants

3:24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was startled and quickly got up. He said to his ministers, “Wasn’t it three men that we tied up and threw ¹⁹  into ²⁰  the fire?” They replied to the king, “For sure, O king.” 3:25 He answered, “But I see four men, untied and walking around in the midst of the fire! No harm has come to them! And the appearance of the fourth is like that of a god!” ²¹ 

Matthew 2:16

2:16 When Herod ²²  saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men ²³  to kill all the children in Bethlehem ²⁴  and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men.

[22:24]  ¹ tn Heb “possessor of anger.” This expression is an idiom for “wrathful person” or “an angry person” (cf. NAB “a hotheaded man”; NLT “short-tempered people”). These are people characterized by anger, meaning the anger is not a rare occurrence with them.

[22:25]  ² tn The verb פֶּן־תֶּאֱלַף (pen-te’elaf) is translated “lest you learn.” The idea is more precisely “become familiar with his ways.” The construction indicates that if one associates with such people he will become like them (cf. TEV “you might learn their habits”).

[22:25]  ³ sn The warning in this proverb is to avoid associating with a hothead because his influence could be fatal (a similar idea is found in the Instruction of Amenemope, chap. 9, 11:13-14 [ANET 423]).

[25:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “do not go out hastily to strive”; the verb “to strive” means dispute in the legal context. The last clause of v. 7, “what your eyes have seen,” does fit very well with the initial clause of v. 8. It would then say: What you see, do not take hastily to court, but if the case was not valid, he would end up in disgrace.

[25:8]  ⁵ tn The clause begins with פֶּן (pen, “lest”) which seems a bit out of place in this line. C. H. Toy suggests changing it to כִּי (ki, “for”) to make a better connection, instead of supplying an ellipsis: “lest it be said what…” (Proverbs [ICC], 461).

[25:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “whose spirit lacks restraint” (ASV similar). A person whose spirit (רוּחַ, ruakh) “lacks restraint” is one who is given to outbursts of passion, who lacks self-control (cf. NIV, NRSV, CEV, NLT). This person has no natural defenses but reveals his true nature all the time. The proverb is stating that without self-control a person is vulnerable, like a city without defenses.

[7:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “Do not be hasty in your spirit to become angry.”

[7:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “bosom.”

[3:19]  ⁹ tn Aram “the appearance of his face was altered”; cf. NLT “his face became distorted with rage”; NAB “[his] face became livid with utter rage.”

[3:19]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “he answered and said.”

[3:20]  ¹¹ tn This is sometimes taken as a comparative: “[some of the] strongest.”

[3:21]  ¹² sn There is a great deal of uncertainty with regard to the specific nature of these items of clothing.

[3:21]  ¹³ tn Aram “into the midst of the furnace.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.

[3:22]  ¹⁴ tn Aram “caused to go up.”

[3:22]  ¹⁵ tn The Aramaic verb is active.

[3:22]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “the flame of the fire” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); NRSV “the raging flames.”

[3:23]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “into the midst of the furnace.” For stylistic reasons the words “the midst of” have been left untranslated.

[3:23]  ¹⁸ sn The deuterocanonical writings known as The Prayer of Azariah and The Song of the Three present at this point a confession and petition for God’s forgiveness and a celebration of God’s grace for the three Jewish youths in the fiery furnace. Though not found in the Hebrew/Aramaic text of Daniel, these compositions do appear in the ancient Greek versions.

[3:24]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “we threw…bound.”

[3:24]  ²⁰ tn Aram “into the midst of.”

[3:25]  ²¹ sn The phrase like that of a god is in Aramaic “like that of a son of the gods.” Many patristic writers understood this phrase in a christological sense (i.e., “the Son of God”). But it should be remembered that these are words spoken by a pagan who is seeking to explain things from his own polytheistic frame of reference; for him the phrase “like a son of the gods” is equivalent to “like a divine being.”

[2:16]  ²² sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Note the fulfillment of the prophecy given by the angel in 2:13.

[2:16]  ²³ tn Or “soldiers.”

[2:16]  ²⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.