| 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 adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore 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. | He who covers an offense promotes love; but he who repeats a matter separates best 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 man of many companions may be ruined, 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. | Don’t envy the man of violence. Choose none of his ways. For the perverse is an abomination to Yahweh, but his friendship is 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 someone 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 they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, and doesn’t have another to lift him up. |
| A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends. | A perverse man stirs up strife. A whisperer separates close friends. |
| How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! | See 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 of 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. | If a man prevails against one who is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. |
| As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. | Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens his friend’s countenance. |
| 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, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life. |
| Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. | To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty. |
| And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. | This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother. |
| Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. | Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. |
| Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” | Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt 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. | Don’t forsake your friend and your father’s friend. Don’t go to your brother’s house in the day of your disaster. A neighbor who is near is better than a distant brother. |
| 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, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established; that is, that I with you may be encouraged in 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 sets the lonely in families. He brings out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land. |
