angry

The Hebrew, Greek and Latin that is translated as “(was or became) angry” in English is translated in Kwere as “saw anger.” In Kwere, emotions are always paired with sensory verbs (seeing or smelling or hearing). (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

In Bariai it is “to have grumbling interiors” (source: Bariai Back Translation).

See also anger and feel (terror, pain, suffering, anxiety).

anger

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The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “anger” or similar in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied”).

  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be warm inside”
  • Mende: “have a cut heart”
  • Mískito: “have a split heart”
  • Tzotzil: “have a hot heart”
  • Mossi: “a swollen heart”
  • Western Kanjobal: “fire of the viscera”
  • San Blas Kuna: “pain in the heart”
  • Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “not with good eye”
  • Chichewa: “have a burning heart” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation) (see also anger burned in him)
  • Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)

In Akan, a number of metaphors are used, most importantly abufuo, lit. “weedy chest” (the chest is seen as a container that contains the heart but can also metaphorically be filled with other fluids etc.), but also abufuhyeε lit. “hot/burning weedy chest” and anibereε, lit. “reddened eyes.” (Source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.)

See also God’s anger and angry.

complete verse (Proverbs 22:24)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 22:24:

  • Kupsabiny: “Do not make friendship with an angry person and do not join with a person who quickly gets angry,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Don’t associate with people who have short tempers.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “[You (sing.)] do- not -make-friends with a person who easily gets-angry,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Do not (sing.) be-friends-with easily-angered (i.e., hot-tempered) people,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “If they say to people who are guilty, ‘You are innocent/have not done something that is wrong,’
    even people in other nations will curse and despise them,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Proverbs 22:24

“Make no friendship with a man given to anger”: “Make no friendship” (New Revised Standard Version “Make no friends”) is more naturally expressed in English as “Don’t make friends” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) or “Never make friends” (Revised English Bible). “A man given to anger” renders the Hebrew idiom “master of anger,” meaning someone who is angry by nature. Languages in different parts of the world have equivalent idioms to this, and they can be well used in translation; in one large Pacific language, for example, the idiom is “man bilong kros kwik,” “person who gets cross easily.” In English, people talk about someone with “a bad temper” or “a hot temper.”

“Nor go with a wrathful man”: This is parallel to the previous line and very similar in meaning. The sense of “go with” is “be friendly with,” and “a wrathful man” is the idiom “a man of rages,” where the term for “rage” literally means “heat.” This is rendered in English as “hot-tempered” (Revised English Bible) or “quick-tempered” (New Jerusalem Bible).

Because the two lines are so similar in meaning, some translations combine them into a single warning statement; for example, Contemporary English Version has “Don’t make friends with anyone who has a bad temper” and New Living Translation “Keep away from angry, short-tempered people.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 22:24

Paragraph 22:24–25 Saying 2

22:24

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

24a
Do not make friends with an angry man,

24b
do not associate with a hot-tempered man,

These parallel commands warn the listener not to associate with a person who frequently loses his temper.

22:24a–b

Do not make friends with…and do not associate with: These parallel commands have essentially the same meaning. Some other ways to translate these commands are:

Do not associate with…or go about with (Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures)
-or-
Never make friends with…nor keep company with (Revised English Bible)
-or-
Don’t make friends with…or spend time with (New Century Version)

an angry man…a hot-tempered man: In Hebrew, the first phrase is literally “master of anger.” The second phrase is literally “man of heats/rages.” These phrases both describe a person who is characterized by anger and easily loses his temper. Some other ways to translate these phrases are:

angry people…hot-tempered people (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
someone prone to anger…anyone hot-tempered (Revised English Bible
-or-
a person who easily/always gets angry…a person who easily loses his temper

If your language has idioms that express these meanings, consider using them here.

General Comment on 22:24a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder the parallel parts. For example:

Don’t make friends with anyone who has a bad temper. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Don’t make friends with people who are always angry and lose their tempers.

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