³⁰ saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

¹¹ And we want each one of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end,^(A)

⁸ Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we^[a] have worked for but may receive a full reward.^(A)

¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them.^{(A) 20} For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the^[a] Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.^{(B) 21} For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was handed on to them.^{(C) 22} It has happened to them according to the true proverb,

and,

⁴ For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit^{(A) 5} and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come^{(B) 6} and then have fallen away, since they are crucifying again the Son of God to their own harm and are holding him up to contempt.^{(C) 7} Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God.^{(D) 8} But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over.^(E)

¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.^{(A) 12} Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— ¹³ the work of each builder will become visible, for the day^[a] will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done.^{(B) 14} If the work that someone has built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a wage.

¹⁸ (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out.^{(A) 19} This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

The Suicide of Judas

³ When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus^[a] was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders.^{(A) 4} He said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent^[b] blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.”^{(B) 5} Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.^{(C) 6} But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.” ⁷ After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter’s field as a place to bury foreigners. ⁸ For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.^(D)