Bible Verses About Friendship: General references

`When thy brother--son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend who is as thine own soul--doth move thee, in secret, saying, Let us go and serve other gods--(which thou hast not known, thou and thy fathers,

of the gods of the peoples who are round about you, who are near unto thee, or who are far off from thee, from the end of the earth even unto the end of the earth) --

thou dost not consent to him, nor hearken unto him, nor doth thine eye have pity on him, nor dost thou spare, nor dost thou cover him over.

`But thou dost surely kill him; thy hand is on him, in the first place, to put him to death, and the hand of all the people last;

To a despiser of his friends is shame, And the fear of the Mighty he forsaketh.

My brethren have deceived as a brook, As a stream of brooks they pass away.

My brethren from me He hath put far off, And mine acquaintances surely Have been estranged from me.

Ceased have my neighbours And my familiar friends have forgotten me,

Sojourners of my house and my maids, For a stranger reckon me: An alien I have been in their eyes.

To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.

My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favours to the sons of my mother's womb.

Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.

Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.

To my skin and to my flesh Cleaved hath my bone, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.

Pity me, pity me, ye my friends, For the hand of God hath stricken against me.

Why do you pursue me as God? And with my flesh are not satisfied?

And I--in their sickness my clothing is sackcloth, I have humbled with fastings my soul, And my prayer unto my bosom returneth.

As if a friend, as if my brother, I walked habitually, As a mourner for a mother, Mourning I have bowed down.

For an enemy reproacheth me not, or I bear it , He who is hating me Hath not magnified himself against me, Or I hide from him.

But thou, a man--as mine equal, My familiar friend, and mine acquaintance.

When together we sweeten counsel, Into the house of God we walk in company.

Shew not thyself friendly with an angry man, And with a man of fury go not in,

Lest thou learn his paths, And have received a snare to thy soul.

Be not thou among those striking hands, Among sureties for burdens.

If thou hast nothing to pay, Why doth he take thy bed from under thee?