2 Samuel 16:17

for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn’t know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, Yahweh, are our Father. Our Redeemer from everlasting is your name.

Samson’s wife wept before him, and said, “You just hate me, and don’t love me. You’ve told a riddle to the children of my people, and haven’t told it to me.” He said to her, “Behold, I haven’t told my father or my mother, so why should I tell you?”

When he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?”

Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance: Mount Zion, in which you have lived.

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.

“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me for a denarius?

Ittai answered the king, and said, “As Yahweh lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in what place my lord the king is, whether for death or for life, your servant will be there also.”

Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart; so does earnest counsel from a man’s friend.

This is what Yahweh who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: “Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.

and in the wilderness where you have seen how that Yahweh your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.”

But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.

Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.

For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.

They lifted up their voices and wept again; then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth stayed with her.

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.

Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by Yahweh, who has not abandoned his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen.”

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 sympathize with him and to comfort him.

“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.

Know that Yahweh, he is God. It is he who has made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Let Israel rejoice in him who made them. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made.’ ”

But now, Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay and you our potter. We all are the work of your hand.

and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless.

Now while the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

He came to the disciples, and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What, couldn’t you watch with me for one hour?

He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you watch one hour?

You do the works of your father.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.”

Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.

For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus.

And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”

For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.

Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.

Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, to the children of Heth.

Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her.

But he refused, and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, my master doesn’t know what is with me in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand.

Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone, until your people pass over, Yahweh, until the people you have purchased pass over.

You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

Is this the way you repay Yahweh, foolish and unwise people? Isn’t he your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.

She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.”

He shall be to you a restorer of life and sustain you in your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

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.

Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.

Jonathan told David, saying, “Saul my father seeks to kill you. Now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, and live in a secret place, and hide yourself.

Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose, and went to David into the woods, and strengthened his hand in God.

I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

The king’s servants said to the king, “Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king chooses.”

David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”

But Hezekiah didn’t reciprocate appropriate to the benefit done for him, because his heart was lifted up. Therefore there was wrath on him, and on Judah and Jerusalem.

For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.

Praise Yahweh, my soul, and don’t forget all his benefits,

What will I give to Yahweh for all his benefits toward me?

to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,

A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity.

A man of many companions may be ruined, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

All the relatives of the poor shun him: how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone.

My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.

He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.

“For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.”

‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don’t see, who have ears, and don’t hear:

They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.

Yahweh said to me, “Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.”

So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

Jesus said to him, “Friend, why are you here?” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.

lest coming suddenly he might find you sleeping.

But he spoke all the more, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” They all said the same thing.

They beckoned to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

Peter said to him, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everybody?”

When he rose up from his prayer, he came to the disciples, and found them sleeping because of grief,

But Jesus said to him, “Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

If you love me, keep my commandments.

If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.

But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.

For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.