¹⁷ For it is time for judgment ^(A)to begin at the household of God; and ^(B)if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who ^(C)do not obey the gospel of God? ¹⁸ And

²⁹ For behold, ^(A)I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, ^(B)for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of hosts.’

³⁰ That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some ^(A)have died.^{[a] 31 (B)}But if we judged^[b] ourselves truly, we would not be judged. ³² But when we are judged by the Lord, ^(C)we are disciplined^[c] so that we may not be ^(D)condemned along with the world.

^9 (A)Why have you despised the word of the Lord, ^(B)to do what is evil in his sight? ^(C)You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and ^(D)have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. ¹⁰ Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ ¹¹ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. ¹² For you did it secretly, ^(E)but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’”

^14 (A)I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, ^(B)I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, ^15 (C)but my steadfast love will not depart from him, ^(D)as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.

²⁴ And as he went away ^(A)a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body.