'Dear' in the Bible

My days have slipped by;my plans have been ruined,even the things dear to my heart.

Therefore I said,“Look away from me! Let me weep bitterly!Do not try to comfort meabout the destruction of my dear people.”

Our holy and beautiful temple,where our fathers praised You,has been burned with fire,and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

“At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, ‘A searing wind blows from the barren heights in the wilderness on the way to My dear people. It comes not to winnow or to sift;

My dear people, dress yourselves in sackclothand roll in the dust.Mourn as you would for an only son,a bitter lament,for suddenly the destroyer will come on us.

They have treated superficially the brokennessof My dear people,claiming, ‘Peace, peace,’when there is no peace.

Listen—the cry of my dear peoplefrom a far away land,“Is the Lord no longer in Zion,her King not within her?”Why have they provoked me to angerwith their carved images,with their worthless foreign idols?

I am broken by the brokennessof my dear people.I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?Is there no physician there?So why has the healing of my dear peoplenot come about? >

If my head were a spring of water,my eyes a fountain of tears,I would weep day and nightover the slain of my dear people.

Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts says:I am about to refine them and test them,for what else can I dobecause of My dear people?

כ KafMy eyes are worn out from weeping;I am churning within.My heart is poured out in griefbecause of the destruction of my dear people,because children and infants faintin the streets of the city.

My eyes flow with streams of tearsbecause of the destruction of my dear people.

ג GimelEven jackals offer their breaststo nurse their young,but my dear people have become cruellike ostriches in the wilderness.

ו VavThe punishment of my dear peopleis greater than that of Sodom,which was overthrown in an instantwithout a hand laid on it.

י YodThe hands of compassionate womenhave cooked their own children;they became their foodduring the destruction of my dear people.

Greet also the church that meets in their home.Greet my dear friend Epaenetus, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia.

Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.

Greet Urbanus, our coworker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.

Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who have worked hard in the Lord.Greet my dear friend Persis, who has worked very hard in the Lord.

I’m not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.

Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.

Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Therefore, dear friends, since we have such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, completing our sanctification in the fear of God.

You have thought all along that we were defending ourselves to you. No, in the sight of God we are speaking in Christ, and everything, dear friends, is for building you up.

So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

So then, my brothers, you are dearly loved and longed for—my joy and crown. In this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother:To Philemon our dear friend and coworker,

Even though we are speaking this way, dear friends, in your case we are confident of the better things connected with salvation.

Listen, my dear brothers: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that He has promised to those who love Him?

Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.

Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you as if something unusual were happening to you.

Dear friends, this is now the second letter I have written to you; in both letters, I want to develop a genuine understanding with a reminder,

Dear friends, don’t let this one thing escape you: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found at peace with Him without spot or blemish.

Also, regard the patience of our Lord as an opportunity for salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him.

Therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, be on your guard, so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stability.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the message you have heard.

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.

Dear friends, if our conscience doesn’t condemn us, we have confidence before God

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

The Elder:To my dear friend Gaius: I love you in the truth.

Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health physically just as you are spiritually.

Dear friend, you are showing faithfulness by whatever you do for the brothers, especially when they are strangers.

Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.

Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write and exhort you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all.

But you, dear friends, remember what was predicted by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;

But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit,