| You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. | You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. |
| Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. | One who conceals an offense seeks love, But one who repeats a matter separates close friends. |
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| One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. | A person of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. |
| Do not envy the violent or choose any of their ways. For the Lord detests the perverse but takes the upright into his confidence. | Do not envy a violent person, And do not choose any of his ways. For the devious are an abomination to the Lord; But He is intimate with the upright. |
| A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. | A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity. |
| Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. | Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends. |
| If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. | For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up! |
| A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends. | A perverse person spreads strife, And a slanderer separates close friends. |
| How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! | Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to live together in unity! |
| Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. | Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. |
| Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. | And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. |
| As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. | As iron sharpens iron, So one person sharpens another. |
| For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! | For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. |
| Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. | For the despairing man there should be kindness from his friend; So that he does not abandon the fear of the Almighty. |
| And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. | And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister. |
| Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. | Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. |
| Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” | Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” |
| Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you— better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away. | Do not abandon your friend or your father’s friend, And do not go to your brother’s house on the day of your disaster; Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother far away. |
| I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. | For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. |
| God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. | God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, Only the rebellious live in parched lands. |
