¹¹ To this hour we have gone both hungry and thirsty; we [^[a]habitually] wear but one undergarment [and shiver in the cold]; we are roughly knocked about and wander around homeless.

¹² And we still toil unto weariness [for our living], working hard with our own hands. When men revile us [^[b]wound us with an accursed sting], we bless them. When we are persecuted, we take it patiently and endure it.

¹³ When we are slandered and defamed, we [try to] answer softly and bring comfort. We have been made and are now the rubbish and filth of the world [the offscouring of all things, the scum of the earth].

¹⁴ I do not write this to shame you, but to warn and counsel you as my beloved children.

¹⁵ After all, though you should have ten thousand teachers (guides to direct you) in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the glad tidings (the Gospel).

¹⁶ So I urge and implore you, be imitators of me.

¹⁷ For this very cause I sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and trustworthy child in the Lord, who will recall to your minds my methods of proceeding and course of conduct and way of life in Christ, such as I teach everywhere in each of the churches.

¹⁸ Some of you have become conceited and arrogant and pretentious, counting on my not coming to you.

¹⁹ But I will come to you [and] shortly, if the Lord is willing, and then I will perceive and understand not what the talk of these puffed up and arrogant spirits amount to, but their force (^[c]the moral power and excellence of soul they really possess).

²⁰ For the kingdom of God consists of and is based on not talk but power (^[d]moral power and excellence of soul).

²¹ Now which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of correction, or with love and in a spirit of gentleness?

2 My son, if you will receive my words and treasure up my commandments within you,

² Making your ear attentive to skillful and godly ^[a]Wisdom and inclining and directing your heart and mind to understanding [applying all your powers to the quest for it];

³ Yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,

⁴ If you seek [Wisdom] as for silver and search for skillful and godly Wisdom as for hidden treasures,

⁵ Then you will understand the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of [our omniscient] God.^(A)

⁶ For the Lord gives skillful and godly Wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁷ He hides away sound and godly Wisdom and stores it for the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with Him); He is a shield to those who walk uprightly and in integrity,

⁸ That He may guard the paths of justice; yes, He preserves the way of His saints.^(B)

⁹ Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and fair dealing [in every area and relation]; yes, you will understand every good path.

¹⁰ For skillful and godly Wisdom shall enter into your heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant to you.

¹¹ Discretion shall watch over you, understanding shall keep you,

¹² To deliver you from the way of evil and the evil men, from men who speak perverse things and are liars,

¹³ Men who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,

¹⁴ Who rejoice to do evil and delight in the perverseness of evil,

¹⁵ Who are crooked in their ways, wayward and devious in their paths.

¹⁶ [Discretion shall watch over you, understanding shall keep you] to deliver you from the alien woman, from the outsider with her flattering words,^(C)

¹⁷ Who forsakes the husband and guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

¹⁸ For her house sinks down to death and her paths to the spirits [of the dead].

¹⁹ None who go to her return again, neither do they attain or regain the paths of life.

²⁰ So may you walk in the way of good men, and keep to the paths of the [consistently] righteous (the upright, in right standing with God).

²¹ For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the men of integrity, blameless and complete [in God’s sight], shall remain in it;

²² But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.