¹¹ “I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has not been loyal to me and has refused to obey my command.” Samuel was so deeply moved when he heard this that he cried out to the Lord all night.

³⁹ But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.

¹⁰ Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus has gone to Dalmatia.

³⁸ But Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work.

³¹ On that day a person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return home. ³² Remember what happened to Lot’s wife!

¹⁵ Look at what was happening to you before you began to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple. ¹⁶ When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten. When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty. ¹⁷ I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord.

¹⁸ “Think about this eighteenth day of December, the day^[a] when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid. Think carefully. ¹⁹ I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn.^[b] You have not yet harvested your grain, and your grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops. But from this day onward I will bless you.”