17
Love your friend and keep faith with him; but if you betray his secrets, do not follow after him.
18
For as a person destroys his enemy, so you have destroyed the friendship of your neighbor.
19
And as you allow a bird to escape from your hand, so you have let your neighbor go, and will not catch him again.
20
Do not go after him, for he is too far off, and has escaped like a gazelle from a snare.
21
For a wound may be bandaged, and there is reconciliation after abuse, but whoever has betrayed secrets is without hope.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.