A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.Proverbs 18:24
There was not time in yesterday's Note to deal with these well-known words. The rendering of 24a is much disputed, as the various translations show:
'There are friends who only bring you loss' - Moffatt.
'Some companions are good only for idle chatter' – NEB.
'There are friends who pretend to be friends' – RSV.
'A man of many friends will suffer loss' – Ellicot.
The literal translation runs, 'A man of friends is to be shattered', i.e. he that maketh many friends doeth it to his own destruction. The AV rendering is least likely, although its sentiment is deeply true: friendship is a two-way traffic, and no one can always expect to be at the receiving end without giving something in return. To do so shows an introspective and in-turned attitude of self-centredness that will devour friends and drain them dry, and still be craving in the end. This in a dangerous disease, and the sooner it is dealt with the better. Of the other renderings, Moffatt's is the most likely to be the right one, although the variant readings that give the RSV and the NEB yield significant lessons. If we follow Moffatt, the meaning would be a warning against indiscriminate friendships as being likely to produce some false and traitorous associations. This is not so far removed from the RSV's pretence of friendship, which reminds us that so called friendship can sometimes be offered with ulterior motives. It is a desolating experience to feel one is being used by another and given 'friendship' only so long as one is useful, then cast aside as of no further interest. The word for 'friend' in 24b is a more positive one, and stands over against 'companions' in the NEB rendering of 24a. Of this true friend, Bridges remarks, 'But where shall we find the complete filling up of this exquisite picture, except in Him, who became our Brother, that he might cleave to us closer than a brother in tenderness and help,' and ends his comment on the verse with the words, 'Oh: let Him be the first choice of youth - the tried and chosen Friend of maturing age the Friend for eternity!'