Warning to Pay Attention

2 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.^{(A) 2} For since the message spoken^(B) through angels^(C) was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,^{(D) 3} how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?^(E) This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord,^(F) was confirmed to us by those who heard him.^(G)

³³ “You snakes! You brood of vipers!^(A) How will you escape being condemned to hell?^(B)

³ So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?

The Day of the Lord

5 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates^(A) we do not need to write to you,^{(B) 2} for you know very well that the day of the Lord^(C) will come like a thief in the night.^{(D) 3} While people are saying, “Peace and safety,”^(E) destruction will come on them suddenly,^(F) as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.^(G)

¹¹ Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.^(A)

²⁸ Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.^{(A) 29} How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God^(B) underfoot,^(C) who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant^(D) that sanctified them,^(E) and who has insulted the Spirit^(F) of grace?^(G)

²³ to the church of the firstborn,^(A) whose names are written in heaven.^(B) You have come to God, the Judge of all,^(C) to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,^{(D) 24} to Jesus the mediator^(E) of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood^(F) that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.^(G)

²⁵ See to it that you do not refuse^(H) him who speaks.^(I) If they did not escape when they refused him who warned^(J) them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?^(K)

¹⁷ For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household;^(A) and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?^{(B) 18} And,