⁹ For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to humans.^(A)

³³ sometimes being publicly exposed to insults and afflictions and sometimes becoming partners with those so treated.^(A)

⁸ We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, ⁹ persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, ¹⁰ always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.^{(A) 11} For we who are living are always being handed over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal flesh. ¹² So death is at work in us but life in you.

³⁶ As it is written,

⁹ When he broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given;^{(A) 10} they cried out with a loud voice, “Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?”^{(B) 11} They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow servants and of their brothers and sisters who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed.^(C)

⁸ We do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.^{(A) 9} Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. ¹⁰ He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us;^[a] on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again,^(B)

¹¹ And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² singing,

¹³ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” ¹⁴ I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.^(B)

¹⁴ Are not all angels^[a] spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?^(A)

⁹ For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,^{(A) 10} who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.^(B)

³ so that no one would be shaken by these persecutions. Indeed, you yourselves know that this is what we are destined for.^(A)