² Keep^[a] the king’s command, and because of your sacred oath^(A)

⁴³ Why then have you not kept your oath to the Lord and the commandment with which I charged you?”

Maintain Good Deeds

3 Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,^(A)

¹³ For the Lord’s sake be subject to every human authority,^[a] whether to the emperor as supreme^{(A) 14} or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. ¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. ¹⁶ As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.^{(B) 17} Honor everyone. Love the family of believers.^[b] Fear God. Honor the emperor.^(C)

Being Subject to Authorities

13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.^{(A) 2} Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval,^{(B) 4} for it is God’s agent for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority^[a] does not bear the sword in vain! It is the agent of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience.^(C)

¹³ He took one of the royal offspring and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath (he had taken away the chief men of the land),^{(A) 14} so that the kingdom might be humble and not lift itself up and that by keeping his covenant it might stand.^{(B) 15} But he rebelled against him by sending ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Can one escape who does such things? Can he break the covenant and yet escape?^{(C) 16} As I live, says the Lord God, surely in the place where the king resides who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant with him he broke—in Babylon he shall die.^{(D) 17} Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in war, when ramps are cast up and siege walls built to cut off many lives.^{(E) 18} Because he despised the oath and broke the covenant, because he gave his hand and yet did all these things, he shall not escape.^{(F) 19} Therefore thus says the Lord God: As I live, I will surely return upon his head my oath that he despised and my covenant that he broke. ²⁰ I will spread my net over him, and he shall be caught in my snare; I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there for the treason he has committed against me.^(G)

²⁴ All the leaders and the mighty warriors and also all the sons of King David pledged their allegiance to King Solomon.

⁷ But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul.^(A)