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The New Revised Standard Version
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Friendship, False and True

5 Pleasant speech multiplies friends,

and a gracious tongue multiplies courtesies.

6 Let those who are friendly with you be many,

but let your advisers be one in a thousand.

7 When you gain friends, gain them through testing,

and do not trust them hastily.

8 For there are friends who are such when it suits them,

but they will not stand by you in time of trouble.

9 And there are friends who change into enemies,

and tell of the quarrel to your disgrace.

10 And there are friends who sit at your table,

but they will not stand by you in time of trouble.

11 When you are prosperous, they become your second self,

and lord it over your servants;

12 but if you are brought low, they turn against you,

and hide themselves from you.

13 Keep away from your enemies,

and be on guard with your friends.

14 Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter:

whoever finds one has found a treasure.

15 Faithful friends are beyond price;

no amount can balance their worth.

16 Faithful friends are life-saving medicine;

and those who fear the Lord will find them.

17 Those who fear the Lord direct their friendship aright,

for as they are, so are their neighbors also.

NRSV

About The New Revised Standard Version

The original Revised Standard Version served as a standard for nearly forty years. The New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha maintains the traditions of the older version with fresh new vocabulary and modern English construction.

Copyright

Up to five hundred (500) verses of The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) Bible text may be quoted or reprinted without the express written permission of the publisher, provided that the verses quoted neither amount to a complete book of the Bible nor account for 50% or more of the written text of the total work in which they are quoted.

When the NRSV text is quoted, notice of copyright must appear on the title or copyright page of the work as follows:

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

When quotations from the NRSV text are used in a non-saleable media, such as church bulletins, orders of service, posters, transparencies or similar media, the initials (NRSV) may be used at the end of each quotation.

Quotations or reprints in excess of five hundred (500) verses (as well as other permissions requests) must be approved in writing by the NRSV Permissions Office, The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115-0050.

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