'Friends' in the Bible

She then said to her father, "Please grant me this one wish. For two months allow me to walk through the hills with my friends and mourn my virginity."

He said, "You may go." He permitted her to leave for two months. She went with her friends and mourned her virginity as she walked through the hills.

When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah who were his friends, saying, "Here's a gift for you from the looting of the Lord's enemies!"

These words of Ish-bosheth really angered Abner and he said, "Am I the head of a dog that belongs to Judah? This very day I am demonstrating loyalty to the house of Saul your father and to his relatives and his friends! I have not betrayed you into the hand of David. Yet you have accused me of sinning with this woman today!

You seem to love your enemies and hate your friends! For you have as much as declared today that leaders and servants don't matter to you. I realize now that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, it would be all right with you.

When he became king and occupied the throne, he killed Baasha's entire family. He did not spare any male belonging to him; he killed his relatives and his friends.

Then Jehu killed all who were left of Ahab's family in Jezreel, and all his nobles, close friends, and priests. He left no survivors.

But Haman restrained himself and went on to his home. He then sent for his friends to join him, along with his wife Zeresh.

Haman's wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, "Have a gallows seventy-five feet high built, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet contented." It seemed like a good idea to Haman, so he had the gallows built.

Haman then related to his wife Zeresh and to all his friends everything that had happened to him. These wise men, along with his wife Zeresh, said to him, "If indeed this Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is Jewish, you will not prevail against him. No, you will surely fall before him!"

When Job's three friends heard about all this calamity that had happened to him, each of them came from his own country -- Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to come to show sympathy for him and to console him.

I am a laughingstock to my friends, I, who called on God and whom he answered -- a righteous and blameless man is a laughingstock!

If a man denounces his friends for personal gain, the eyes of his children will fail.

My kinsmen have failed me; my friends have forgotten me.

All my closest friends detest me; and those whom I love have turned against me.

Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me, for the hand of God has struck me.

For all of them, the morning is to them like deep darkness; they are friends with the terrors of darkness.

With Job's three friends he was also angry, because they could not find an answer, and so declared Job guilty.

I will reply to you, and to your friends with you.

After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My anger is stirred up against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.

So the Lord restored what Job had lost after he prayed for his friends, and the Lord doubled all that had belonged to Job.

Because of my condition, even my friends and acquaintances keep their distance; my neighbors stand far away.

He attacks his friends; he breaks his solemn promises to them.

May their dining table become a trap before them! May it be a snare for that group of friends!

You cause my friends and neighbors to keep their distance; those who know me leave me alone in the darkness.

A perverse person spreads dissension, and a gossip separates the closest friends.

The one who forgives an offense seeks love, but whoever repeats a matter separates close friends.

A person who has friends may be harmed by them, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Wealth adds many friends, but a poor person is separated from his friend.

All the relatives of a poor person hate him; how much more do his friends avoid him -- he pursues them with words, but they do not respond.

Do not make friends with an angry person, and do not associate with a wrathful person,

The Lover to His Beloved: I have entered my garden, O my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my balsam spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk! The Poet to the Couple: Eat, friends, and drink! Drink freely, O lovers!

So, this is what the Lord says: 'I will assuredly make these people stumble to their doom. Parents and children will stumble and fall to their destruction. Friends and neighbors will die.'

Everyone must be on his guard around his friends. He must not even trust any of his relatives. For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. And all of his friends will tell lies about him.

For the Lord says, 'I will make both you and your friends terrified of what will happen to you. You will see all of them die by the swords of their enemies. I will hand all the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will carry some of them away into exile in Babylon and he will kill others of them with the sword.

You, Pashhur, and all your household will go into exile in Babylon. You will die there and you will be buried there. The same thing will happen to all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.'"

I hear many whispering words of intrigue against me. Those who would cause me terror are everywhere! They are saying, "Come on, let's publicly denounce him!" All my so-called friends are just watching for something that would lead to my downfall. They say, "Perhaps he can be enticed into slipping up, so we can prevail over him and get our revenge on him.

All the women who are left in the royal palace of Judah will be led out to the officers of the king of Babylon. They will taunt you saying, 'Your trusted friends misled you; they have gotten the best of you. Now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they have turned their backs on you.'

(Bet) She weeps bitterly at night; tears stream down her cheeks. She has no one to comfort her among all her lovers. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

So a decree went out, and the wise men were about to be executed. They also sought Daniel and his friends so that they could be executed.

Then Daniel went to his home and informed his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the matter.

He asked them to pray for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that he and his friends would not be destroyed along with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

All your allies will force you from your homeland! Your treaty partners will deceive you and overpower you. Your trusted friends will set an ambush for you that will take you by surprise!

Then someone will ask him, 'What are these wounds on your chest?' and he will answer, 'Some that I received in the house of my friends.'

So Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more they can do.

He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you host a dinner or a banquet, don't invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors so you can be invited by them in return and get repaid.

Returning home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, telling them, 'Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost.'

Then when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.'

but he answered his father, 'Look! These many years I have worked like a slave for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. Yet you never gave me even a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends!

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth, so that when it runs out you will be welcomed into the eternal homes.

You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will have some of you put to death.

That very day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other, for prior to this they had been enemies.

No one has greater love than this -- that one lays down his life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father.

The following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting anxiously for them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

we have unanimously decided to choose men to send to you along with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul,

Even some of the provincial authorities who were his friends sent a message to him, urging him not to venture into the theater.

He ordered the centurion to guard Paul, but to let him have some freedom, and not to prevent any of his friends from meeting his needs.

The next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius, treating Paul kindly, allowed him to go to his friends so they could provide him with what he needed.

Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God's wrath, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord.

So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that could defile the body and the spirit, and thus accomplish holiness out of reverence for God.

Have you been thinking all this time that we have been defending ourselves to you? We are speaking in Christ before God, and everything we do, dear friends, is to build you up.

So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence,

So then, my brothers and sisters, dear friends whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand in the Lord in this way, my dear friends!

But in your case, dear friends, even though we speak like this, we are convinced of better things relating to salvation.

Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul,

Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Dear friends, this is already the second letter I have written you, in which I am trying to stir up your pure mind by way of reminder:

Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day.

Therefore, dear friends, since you are waiting for these things, strive to be found at peace, without spot or blemish, when you come into his presence.

Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard that you do not get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men and fall from your firm grasp on the truth.

Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have already heard.

Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is.

Dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of 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 fathered by God and knows God.

Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.

But I hope to see you right away, and we will speak face to face. Peace be with you. The friends here greet you. Greet the friends there by name.

Dear friends, although I have been eager to write to you about our common salvation, I now feel compelled instead to write to encourage you to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.

But you, dear friends -- recall the predictions foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit,