Proverbs 13:20

“He that walketh with wise [men] shall be wise, etc.] 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…”

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

“13:20 We are influenced by those we associate with.”

“that: Pro 2:20; Psa 119:63; Sol 1:7, Sol 1:8; Mal 3:16; Act 2:42; Heb 10:24 but: Pro 1:11-19, Pro 2:12-19, Pro 7:22, Pro 7:23, Pro 7:27, Pro 9:6; Gen 13:12, Gen 13:13, Gen 14:12; Kg1 12:8, Kg1 12:10; Kg1 22:4, Kg1 22:32; Ch2 19:2; Co1 15:33, Co1 15:34; Co2 6:14-18; Rev 18:4 destroyed: Heb. broken Proverbs 13:21”

“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…”