Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me

To the choirmaster: according to ^(A)The Gittith.^[a] Of ^(B)Asaph.

The Lord Will Restore Israel

^33 (A)“As I live, declares the Lord God, ^(B)surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and ^(C)with wrath poured out I will be king over you. ^34 (D)I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out. ^35 (E)And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, ^(F)and there I will enter into judgment with you ^(G)face to face. ^36 (H)As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God. ³⁷ I will make you ^(I)pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. ^38 (J)I will purge out the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against me. ^(K)I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, ^(L)but they shall not enter the land of Israel. ^(M)Then you will know that I am the Lord.

³⁹ “As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: ^(N)Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; ^(O)but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols.

^40 (P)“For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord God, there ^(Q)all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. ^(R)There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. ⁴¹ As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when ^(S)I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And ^(T)I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. ^42 (U)And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that ^(V)I swore to give to your fathers. ^43 (W)And there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, ^(X)and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed. ⁴⁴ And you shall know that I am the Lord, ^(Y)when I deal with you for my name's sake, ^(Z)not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”

^45 [a] And the word of the Lord came to me: ^46 (AA)“Son of man, ^(AB)set your face toward the southland;^{[b] (AC)}preach against the south, and prophesy against the forest land in the Negeb. ⁴⁷ Say to the forest of the Negeb, Hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, ^(AD)I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every ^(AE)green tree in you and every ^(AF)dry tree. The blazing flame shall not be quenched, and ^(AG)all faces from south to north shall be scorched by it. ^48 (AH)All flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.” ⁴⁹ Then I said, ^(AI)“Ah, Lord God! They are saying of me, ^(AJ)‘Is he not a maker of parables?’”

Greeting

1 Paul, ^(A)an apostle of Christ Jesus ^(B)by command of ^(C)God our Savior and of Christ Jesus ^(D)our hope,

² To Timothy, ^(E)my true child in the faith:

^(F)Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Warning Against False Teachers

^3 (G)As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not ^(H)to teach any different doctrine, ⁴ nor ^(I)to devote themselves to myths and endless ^(J)genealogies, which promote ^(K)speculations rather than the stewardship^[a] from God that is by faith. ⁵ The aim of our charge is love ^(L)that issues from a pure heart and ^(M)a good conscience and ^(N)a sincere faith. ⁶ Certain persons, by ^(O)swerving from these, have wandered away into ^(P)vain discussion, ⁷ desiring to be teachers of the law, ^(Q)without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

⁸ Now we know that ^(R)the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, ⁹ understanding this, that the ^(S)law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, ¹⁰ the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers,^[b] liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to ^(T)sound^[c] doctrine, ¹¹ in accordance with ^(U)the gospel of the glory of ^(V)the blessed God ^(W)with which I have been entrusted.

Christ Jesus Came to Save Sinners

¹² I thank him ^(X)who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, ^(Y)appointing me to his service, ¹³ though formerly I was a blasphemer, ^(Z)persecutor, and insolent opponent. But ^(AA)I received mercy ^(AB)because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴ and ^(AC)the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the ^(AD)faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ The saying is ^(AE)trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus ^(AF)came into the world to save sinners, ^(AG)of whom I am the foremost. ¹⁶ But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. ¹⁷ To ^(AH)the King of the ages, ^(AI)immortal, ^(AJ)invisible, ^(AK)the only God, ^(AL)be honor and glory forever and ever.^[d] Amen.

¹⁸ This charge ^(AM)I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with ^(AN)the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may ^(AO)wage the good warfare, ^19 (AP)holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have ^(AQ)made shipwreck of their faith, ²⁰ among whom are ^(AR)Hymenaeus and ^(AS)Alexander, whom I ^(AT)have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to ^(AU)blaspheme.