He that walketh with wise [men] shall be wise,.... 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 known"; known by the company he keeps to be a fool also: or rather, "shall be broken" ; ruined and destroyed, "evil communications corrupt good manners", 1Co 15:33, and so bring to ruin and destruction.