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Bible verses about friendship

Most lists open with Proverbs 18:24, and it is the right place to start — but not for the usual reason. Look at the two translations below it. The King James says a man that hath friends must shew himself friendly. The modern rendering says a man of many companions may be ruined. Those are not the same sentence; they are barely the same advice. The half everybody quotes is the half they agree on.

14 passages · World English Bible & King James · public domain

  1. A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity.Proverbs 17:17 · World English Bible

    The cleanest statement of the idea, and the one the English proverb is really reaching for. Note the second half: the brother is born for adversity, which is a job description rather than a compliment.

    King James

    A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

  2. A man of many companions may be ruined, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.Proverbs 18:24 · World English Bible

    The verse where our two translations disagree about the entire first half — ruined by many companions, or obliged to be friendly. See below. The second half is identical in both.

    King James

    A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

  3. The wounds of a friend are faithful, although the kisses of an enemy are profuse.Proverbs 27:6 · World English Bible

    Faithful wounds against profuse kisses. The King James says the enemy's kisses are deceitful; the Hebrew word underneath just means abundant, which is a colder observation.

    King James

    Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

  4. Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens his friend’s countenance.Proverbs 27:17 · World English Bible

    Iron sharpening iron, and the word is countenance — the face. An abrasive image, routinely quoted as though it meant mutual encouragement.

    King James

    Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

  5. 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 neighbour who is near is better than a distant brother.Proverbs 27:10 · World English Bible

    Don't drop the old friend, and don't assume family is the right door to knock on in a crisis. Unusually practical about who is actually nearby.

    King James

    Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.

  6. A perverse man stirs up strife. A whisperer separates close friends.Proverbs 16:28 · World English Bible

    A whisperer separates close friends. Stated as a thing that happens, with no advice attached — which is its own kind of honesty.

    King James

    A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.

  7. Don’t befriend a hot-tempered man. Don’t associate with one who harbours anger, lest you learn his ways and ensnare your soul.Proverbs 22:24-25 · World English Bible

    The verse the lists leave out. Make no friendship with an angry man, and here is why: you will learn his ways.

    King James

    Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.

  8. Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour. 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. Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one keep warm alone? If a man prevails against one who is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 · World English Bible

    Two are better than one — and the argument is falling over, keeping warm and being outnumbered. Practical rather than sentimental. Also read at weddings; see our wedding page.

    King James

    Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

  9. When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Saul took him that day, and wouldn’t let him go home to his father’s house any more. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.1 Samuel 18:1-3 · World English Bible

    Souls knit together, and a covenant. Jonathan is the king's son and David is the man who will have the throne instead of him. See below.

    King James

    And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father’s house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.

  10. Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.”Ruth 1:16-17 · World English Bible

    A vow, spoken by a widowed daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law after being formally released. No obligation left, and she stays anyway.

    King James

    And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

  11. Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathise with him and to comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognise him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads towards the sky. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.Job 2:11-13 · World English Bible

    Seven days on the ground, and nobody says a word. The friends of Job get this part exactly right before they get everything else wrong.

    King James

    Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

  12. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.John 15:13 · World English Bible

    Greater love has no one than this. Said by someone about to do it, days beforehand, which is why it reads differently from a motto.

    King James

    Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

  13. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.John 15:15 · World English Bible

    The line where the relationship is renamed. Servants don't know what the master is doing; friends have been told.

    King James

    Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

  14. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.Galatians 6:2 · World English Bible

    Bear one another's burdens. The shortest instruction here, and the only one phrased as a shared job rather than a description.

    King James

    Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Proverbs 18:24, where our two translations part company

Here it is in the modern rendering:

A man of many companions may be ruined, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.Proverbs 18:24 · World English Bible

And the King James, printed under it above: A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

One says having too many friends will ruin you. The other says if you want friends you have to be friendly. A greetings card could be made from the second; the first is a warning.

This is not a manuscript difference. The Hebrew letters are the same in every copy; what is unsettled is which root they come from. The word is lehitro'ea, and it can be read as the reflexive of ra'a', to break or be shattered — hence may be ruined — or as a reflexive of the root behind friend, giving something like to cherish company, which is the King James line. Both readings are old. The commentaries print the argument with both sides named: the Pulpit Commentary and Keil and Delitzsch take it as the breaking word, and note that the Syriac, the Targum and Jerome had already taken it the other way.

So it belongs with the translation differences on this site rather than the manuscript ones — the same category as Proverbs 3:6. Nobody disputes the text. They disagree about what the word is.

We are not going to settle it either, and there is no need to. The second half is identical in both: there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. That is the clause on the mugs, and for once the popular half is the half that is not in doubt.

The friend who tells you the truth, and the one who does not

Proverbs has a cluster on this, and it is unsentimental:

The wounds of a friend are faithful, although the kisses of an enemy are profuse.Proverbs 27:6 · World English Bible

Worth opening the King James on that one too. It has the kisses of an enemy are deceitful; the modern rendering has profuse. Here the older translation is the interpretive one: the Hebrew is na'tarot, from a root glossed simply “to be abundant”. The proverb is not saying the enemy's affection is fake. It is saying there is a great deal of it. Which is worse, and more recognisable.

Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens his friend’s countenance.Proverbs 27:17 · World English Bible

This one gets quoted as though it meant mutual encouragement. Both our translations keep the actual word, and it is not character or spirit — it is countenance, the face. And sharpening iron is an abrasive business that removes material and makes a noise. Whatever the proverb is promising, comfortable is not it.

Job's friends were right for seven days

The best-known friendship in the Bible after David and Jonathan is a failure, and the book is unusually precise about when it went wrong. This is how they start:

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathise with him and to comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognise him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads towards the sky. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.Job 2:11-13 · World English Bible

They travel. They weep. They tear their clothes. Then they sit on the ground with him for a week and say nothing, for they saw that his grief was very great. It is hard to think of a better account of what to do for somebody in the first week of something terrible.

Then they open their mouths, and thirty-five chapters later Job says this:

“I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!Job 16:2 · World English Bible

And at the very end, when God speaks, the verdict does not go the way the friends have spent the whole book assuming it will:

It was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.Job 42:7 · World English Bible

Read the two halves together and the book makes a point most friendship lists miss entirely. The silence was right and the explanations were wrong — and the explanations were the part they thought was helping. If you are the friend in that position, our piece on what to say to someone who is grieving is about exactly this, and our verses for grief page carries the passages for the person in Job's chair.

Two friendships the text describes carefully

Ruth and Naomi. The famous lines are a vow, and they are not spoken to a husband:

Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.”Ruth 1:16-17 · World English Bible

Naomi has just released both her daughters-in-law and told them to go home; the other one does. There is no legal tie left and no advantage in staying. That is what makes it a friendship passage rather than a family one. It is read at a great many weddings anyway — our wedding readings page covers that side of it, including how long it takes aloud.

David and Jonathan. The narrative uses unusually strong language — souls knit together, a covenant, and Jonathan stripping off his own robe and weapons and handing them over:

Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David with his clothing, even including his sword, his bow, and his sash.1 Samuel 18:4 · World English Bible

Readers have long disagreed about what kind of bond this was, and the text does not say. We are not going to tell you, because telling you would be claiming something the narrative withholds. What it does say plainly is the part that usually goes unmentioned. Jonathan was the king's son, and this is what he says to the man who will take the throne instead of him:

He said to him, “Don’t be afraid, for the hand of Saul my father won’t find you; and you will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also.”1 Samuel 23:17 · World English Bible

Whatever else was true, the friendship cost him a kingdom and he said so out loud.

What these verses do not promise

  • Not that friendships last. Proverbs 16:28 has a whisperer separating close friends, and reports it as something that happens rather than something to be guarded against successfully.
  • Not that you should keep every one of them. Proverbs 22:24-25 says the opposite in as many words, and gives a reason: you will learn his ways. Scripture is capable of telling you to stop.
  • Not that friends replace family. Proverbs 27:10 prefers the near neighbour to the distant brother, which is a point about proximity in a crisis, not about who matters more.
  • Not a cure for being alone. Nothing here treats loneliness as a failure to make enough friends. Our verses for loneliness page is the one for that, and it does not say that either.
  • Not a guarantee of being understood. Job's friends stayed. They just also talked.

“A friend in need is a friend indeed” is not in the Bible

People do go looking, so: it is an English proverb, not a verse. It is recorded in roughly its modern form by the sixteenth century and traced back behind that to a line of the Roman poet Ennius — a sure friend is known in an unsure matter.

No argument with the sentiment. Proverbs 17:17 says something close to it and says it better. But it is a proverb about friendship rather than a quotation from Scripture, and this site would rather you knew which is which — the same reason our page on patience points out that “patience is a virtue” is Langland rather than the Bible.

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For sitting with someone who is not all right

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathise with him and to comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognise him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads towards the sky. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

Job 2:11-13

You said you didn't know what to say. Job's friends got that part right for seven days — they sat down and said nothing at all.

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Questions

What does the Bible say about friendship?

It is more unsentimental than the lists suggest. Proverbs 17:17 has a friend loving at all times, but Proverbs 27:6 prefers a friend's wounds to an enemy's kisses, Proverbs 22:24-25 tells you not to befriend an angry man, and Proverbs 16:28 notes that a whisperer separates close friends. All fourteen passages are quoted in full above in both translations.

What is the best Bible verse about friendship?

Proverbs 18:24 is the most quoted — there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother — and that clause is identical in both translations. The first half of the same verse is not: the King James has 'a man that hath friends must shew himself friendly' where the modern rendering has 'a man of many companions may be ruined'. Both are printed on this page so you can see the difference.

Who were the best friends in the Bible?

David and Jonathan, and Ruth and Naomi. Both are quoted in full above. Jonathan was the king's son and told David outright that David would be king instead of him; Ruth made her vow to Naomi after being formally released from any obligation. Job and his three friends are the counter-example — they sat with him in silence for seven days and then made it worse.

Is 'a friend in need is a friend indeed' in the Bible?

No. It is an English proverb, recorded in roughly its modern form by the sixteenth century, with a Latin ancestor in the Roman poet Ennius. Proverbs 17:17 is the verse closest to it: a friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

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