³ Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ^(A)‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained.

⁸ And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ^(A)‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’

¹⁴ They ^(A)will make war on the Lamb, and ^(B)the Lamb will conquer them, for he is ^(C)Lord of lords and ^(D)King of kings, and those with him are ^(E)called and chosen and faithful.”

^8 (A)But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, ^(B)their portion will be in ^(C)the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is ^(D)the second death.”

The Cost of Discipleship

²⁵ Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ^26 (A)“If anyone comes to me and ^(B)does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, ^(C)yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. ^27 (D)Whoever does not ^(E)bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not ^(F)first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not ^(G)sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ^33 (H)So therefore, any one of you who ^(I)does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

¹⁶ So ^(A)the last will be first, and the first last.”

²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but ^(A)endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately ^(B)he falls away.^[a]