'Dear' in the Bible

“At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, ‘A searing wind blows from the barren heights in the wilderness on the way to My dear people. It comes not to winnow or to sift;

My dear people, dress yourselves in sackclothand roll in the dust.Mourn as you would for an only son,a bitter lament,for suddenly the destroyer will come on us.

They have treated superficially the brokennessof My dear people,claiming, ‘Peace, peace,’when there is no peace.

Listen—the cry of my dear peoplefrom a far away land,“Is the Lord no longer in Zion,her King not within her?”Why have they provoked me to angerwith their carved images,with their worthless foreign idols?

I am broken by the brokennessof my dear people.I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?Is there no physician there?So why has the healing of my dear peoplenot come about? >

If my head were a spring of water,my eyes a fountain of tears,I would weep day and nightover the slain of my dear people.

Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts says:I am about to refine them and test them,for what else can I dobecause of My dear people?