⁵ Then, the fifth time, Sanballat^(A) sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter

¹⁰ and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.^(A) They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.^(B)

¹¹ Put on the full armor of God,^(A) so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

¹³ For such people are false apostles,^(A) deceitful^(B) workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.^{(C) 14} And no wonder, for Satan^(D) himself masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵ It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.^(E)

¹¹ in order that Satan^(A) might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.^(B)

²⁶ Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,^(A) since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

²⁷ But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

²⁸ Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!