42 Bible Verses about Best Friends

Even my own close friend in whom I trusted,
Who ate my bread,
Has lifted up his heel against me [betraying me].

“All the men of my council hate me;
Those I love have turned against me.

Do not trust in a neighbor [because of the moral corruption in the land];
Do not have confidence in a friend.
Guard the doors of your mouth
From her who lies in your bosom.

A friend loves at all times,
And a brother is born for adversity.

But it is you, a man my equal and my counsel,
My companion and my familiar friend;

No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend [who corrects out of love and concern],
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful [because they serve his hidden agenda].

A perverse man spreads strife,
And one who gossips separates intimate friends.

You are my friends if you keep on doing what I command you.

Oil and perfume make the heart glad;
So does the sweetness of a friend’s counsel that comes from the heart.

You have put my friends far from me;
You have made me an object of loathing to them.
I am shut up and I cannot go out.

He who covers and forgives an offense seeks love,
But he who repeats or gossips about a matter separates intimate friends.

“My relatives have failed [me],
And my intimate friends have forgotten me.

The righteous man is a guide to his neighbor,
But the way of the wicked leads them astray.

The man of too many friends [chosen indiscriminately] will be broken in pieces and come to ruin,
But there is a [true, loving] friend who [is reliable and] sticks closer than a brother.

Wealth makes many friends,
But a poor man is separated from his friend.

The secret [of the wise counsel] of the Lord is for those who fear Him,
And He will let them know His covenant and reveal to them [through His word] its [deep, inner] meaning.

Lover and friend You have placed far from me;
My familiar friends are in darkness.

And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and this [faith] was credited to him [by God] as righteousness and as conformity to His will,” and he was called the friend of God.

Beloved, let us [unselfishly] love and seek the best for one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves [others] is born of God and knows God [through personal experience].

“Let everyone beware of his neighbor
And do not trust any brother.
For every brother is a supplanter [like Jacob, a deceiver, ready to grab his brother’s heel],
And every neighbor goes around as a slanderer.

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; for they had made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.

Do not abandon your own friend and your father’s friend,
And do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your disaster.
Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.

As I was in the prime of my days,
When the friendship and counsel of God were over my tent,

My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague;
And my neighbors stand far away.

Do not even associate with a man given to angry outbursts;
Or go [along] with a hot-tempered man,

I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you [My] friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father.

Many a man proclaims his own loyalty and goodness,
But who can find a faithful and trustworthy man?

He who loves purity of heart
And whose speech is gracious will have the king as his friend.

All the brothers of a poor man hate him;
How much more do his friends abandon him!
He pursues them with words, but they are gone.

For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
Then I could bear it;
Nor is it one who has hated me who insolently exalts himself against me—
Then I could hide from him.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this pleasure and joy of mine is now complete.

Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

As iron sharpens iron,
So one man sharpens [and influences] another [through discussion].

He who walks [as a companion] with wise men will be wise,
But the companions of [conceited, dull-witted] fools [are fools themselves and] will experience harm.

for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and does not have another to lift him up.

And I tell you [learn from this], make friends for yourselves [for eternity] by means of the wealth of unrighteousness [that is, use material resources as a way to further the work of God], so that when it runs out, they will welcome you into the eternal dwellings.

We who had sweet fellowship together,
Who walked to the house of God in company.

A brother offended is harder to win over than a fortified city,
And contentions [separating families] are like the bars of a castle.

When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bonded to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.

Now that very day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other—before this they had been enemies.

He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning,
It will be counted as a curse to him [for it will either be annoying or his purpose will be suspect].