4 For behold, the day comes that shall burn like an oven, and all the proud and arrogant, yes, and all that do wickedly and are lawless, shall be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.^(A)

² But unto you who revere and worshipfully fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings and His beams, and you shall go forth and gambol like calves [released] from the stall and leap for joy.

³ And you shall tread down the lawless and wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the Lord of hosts.

⁴ [Earnestly] remember the law of Moses, My servant, the statutes and the ordinances which I commanded him on [Mount] Horeb [to give] to all Israel.

⁵ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.^(B)

⁶ And he shall turn and reconcile the hearts of the [estranged] fathers to the [ungodly] children, and the hearts of the [rebellious] children to [the piety of] their fathers [a reconciliation produced by repentance of the ungodly], lest I come and smite the land with a curse and a ban of utter destruction.^(C)

1 Now after the death of Saul, when David returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, he had stayed two days in Ziklag,

² When on the third day a man came from Saul’s camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground and did obeisance.

³ David said to him, Where have you come from? He said, I have escaped from the camp of Israel.

⁴ David said to him, How did it go? Tell me. He answered, The men have fled from the battle. Many have fallen and are dead; Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.

⁵ David said to the young man, How do you know Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?

⁶ The young man said, By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa and I saw Saul leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and horsemen were close behind him.

⁷ When he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. I answered, Here I am.

⁸ He asked me, Who are you? I answered, An Amalekite.

⁹ He said to me, Rise up against me and slay me; for terrible dizziness has come upon me, yet my life is still in me [and I will be taken alive].

¹⁰ So I stood up against him and slew him, because I was sure he could not live after he had fallen. So I took the crown on his head and the bracelet on his arm and have brought them here to my lord.^(A)

¹¹ Then David grasped his own clothes and tore them; so did all the men with him.

¹² They mourned and wept for Saul and Jonathan his son, and fasted until evening for the Lord’s people and the house of Israel, because of their defeat in battle.

¹³ David said to the young man who told him, Where are you from? He answered, I am the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite.

¹⁴ David said to him, Why were you not afraid to stretch forth your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?

¹⁵ David called one of the young men and said, Go near and fall upon him. And he smote him so that he died.

²² This [ambition] is the reason why I have so frequently been hindered from coming to visit you.

²³ But now since I have no further opportunity for work in these regions, and since I have longed for ^[a]enough years to come to you,

²⁴ I hope to see you in passing [through Rome] as I go [on my intended trip] to Spain, and to be aided on my journey there by you, after I have enjoyed your company for a little while.

²⁵ For the present, however, I am going to Jerusalem to bring aid (relief) for the saints (God’s people there).

²⁶ For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make some contribution for the poor among the saints of Jerusalem.

²⁷ They were pleased to do it; and surely they are in debt to them, for if these Gentiles have come to share in their [the Jerusalem Jews’] spiritual blessings, then they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.

²⁸ When therefore I have completed this mission and have delivered to them [at Jerusalem] what has been raised, I shall go on by way of you to Spain.

²⁹ And I know that when I do come to you, I shall come in the abundant blessing of the Gospel of Christ.

³⁰ I appeal to you [I entreat you], brethren, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love [given by] the Spirit, to unite with me in earnest wrestling in prayer to God in my behalf.

³¹ [Pray] that I may be delivered (rescued) from the unbelievers in Judea and that my mission of relief to Jerusalem may be acceptable and graciously received by the saints (God’s people there),

³² So that by God’s will I may subsequently come to you with joy (with a happy heart) and be refreshed [by the interval of rest] in your company.

¹³ May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.

¹⁴ Personally I am satisfied about you, my brethren, that you yourselves are rich in goodness, amply filled with all [spiritual] knowledge and competent to admonish and counsel and instruct one another also.

¹⁵ Still on some points I have written to you the more boldly and unreservedly by way of reminder. [I have done so] because of the grace (the unmerited favor) bestowed on me by God

¹⁶ In making me a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. I act in the priestly service of the Gospel (the good news) of God, in order that the sacrificial offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable [to God], consecrated and made holy by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁷ In Christ Jesus, then, I have legitimate reason to glory (exult) in my work for God [in what through Christ Jesus I have accomplished concerning the things of God].

¹⁸ For [of course] I will not venture (presume) to speak thus of any work except what Christ has actually done through me [as an instrument in His hands] to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed,

¹⁹ [Even as my preaching has been accompanied] with the power of signs and wonders, [and all of it] by the power of the Holy Spirit. [The result is] that starting from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel [faithfully executing, accomplishing, carrying out to the full the good news] of Christ (the Messiah) in its entirety.

²⁰ Thus my ambition has been to preach the Gospel, not where Christ’s name has already been known, lest I build on another man’s foundation;

²¹ But [instead I would act on the principle] as it is written, They shall see who have never been told of Him, and they shall understand who have never heard [of Him].^(A)