⁶If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

⁷Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;

⁸Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:

¹⁴To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;

²I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.

²⁰My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

¹³He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

¹⁴My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

¹³But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.

¹⁴I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.

⁹Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.

¹²For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:

¹³But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.

¹⁴We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

⁸Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

¹⁸Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

¹³A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.

⁹He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

¹⁷A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

²⁴A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

²⁴Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:

²⁵Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.

²⁶Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.

¹⁷Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house; lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee.

¹⁹Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.

⁶Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

⁹Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.

¹⁰Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.

¹⁴He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.

¹⁷Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

¹⁹As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.

⁹Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.

¹⁰For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.

¹¹Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?

³Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

¹⁶At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.

¹⁴And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.

¹⁵And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

¹⁶And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

¹⁶And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: