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Read with care

Narratives such as Ruth and Naomi or David and Jonathan are particular relationships, while Proverbs gives compressed wisdom sayings. Both kinds of writing reward reading beyond a single line.

Proverbs are observations about wise living, not guarantees that every friendship will follow a fixed rule.

How to use these passages

Read a narrative alongside a proverb and ask what loyalty looks like in each. The book of Ruth and the friendship of David and Jonathan show relationships in motion; a proverb compresses an observation into one memorable line.

Nine places to begin

Passages from this collection

This editorial collection contains 91 distinct passages. Read these examples in context, or use the generator to discover more.

Ruth 1:16-17

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 Yahweh do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.”

Read Ruth 1 →
1 Samuel 18:1-3

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.

Read 1 Samuel 18 →
Proverbs 18:24

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

Read Proverbs 18 →
Proverbs 27:6

The wounds of a friend are faithful, although the kisses of an enemy are profuse.

Read Proverbs 27 →
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. 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.

Read Ecclesiastes 4 →
John 15:12-15

“This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. 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.

Read John 15 →
Romans 12:9-13

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good. In love of the brothers be tenderly affectionate to one another; in honor prefer one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, enduring in troubles, continuing steadfastly in prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, and given to hospitality.

Read Romans 12 →
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