³⁶ But you must not mention ‘a message from the Lord’ again, because each one’s word becomes their own message. So you distort^(A) the words of the living God,^(B) the Lord Almighty, our God.

¹⁶ He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable^(A) people distort,^(B) as they do the other Scriptures,^(C) to their own destruction.

⁴ It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule^(A) the living God, and that he will rebuke^(B) him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant^(C) that still survives.”

¹⁵ to judge^(A) everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”^{[a](B) 16} These people are grumblers^(C) and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires;^(D) they boast^(E) about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

¹⁷ These people are springs without water^(A) and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.^{(B) 18} For they mouth empty, boastful words^(C) and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping^(D) from those who live in error.