C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Proverbs 24:1-2

Pro 24:1-2

After this divergence (in Pro 23:29-35) from the usual form of the proverb, there is now a return to the tetrastich: 1 Envy not evil men,    And desire not to have intercourse with them. 2 For their heart thinketh of violence,    And their lips speak mischief.

The warning, not to envy the godless, is also found at Pro 3:31; Pro 23:17; Pro 24:19, but is differently constructed in each of these passages. Regarding תּתאו with Pathach, vid., at Pro 23:3. אנשׁי רעה (cf. רע, Pro 28:5) are the wicked, i.e., such as cleave to evil, and to whom evil clings. The warning is grounded in this, that whoever have intercourse with such men, make themselves partners in greater sins and evil: for their heart broodeth (write כּי שׁד, Munach Dechî) violence, i.e., robbery, plunder, destruction, murder, and the like. With שׁד (in the Mishle only here and at Pro 21:7, cf. שׁדּד, Pro 19:26) connects itself elsewhere חמס, here (cf. Hab 1:3) עמל, labor, molestia, viz., those who prepare it for others by means of slanderous, crafty, uncharitable talk.