so that they all should be condemned, who are faithless to the truth, but take pleasure in evil.

Although they desire to be teachers of the law, they understand neither the words they use nor the subjects they talk about.

Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have given over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.

Notwithstanding she will be saved by the Child-bearing; (so will they all), if they live in faith and love and holiness, with self-restraint.

They should first be tested, and after that, if they are found irreproachable, let them serve as deacons.

Keep admonishing them regarding these things, so that they may be irreproachable.

But exclude from the list the younger widows; for where they have become wanton against Christ, they desire to marry,

and incur condemnation because they have broken their first troth.

Moreover, they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and are not only idlers, but gossips also, and busybodies, repeating things they ought not.

So also noble deeds are conspicuous, and even if otherwise, they cannot be kept hidden.

Those whose masters are Christian believers must not treat them with disrespect, because they are brothers; nay, rather slave for them the better because those who get the benefit of their services are believing and beloved. Continue to teach and preach this.

laying up right good treasure for themselves in the world to come, in order that they may obtain the Life which is life indeed.

But God's message is no prisoner. That is why I endure everything for the sake of the chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Among such are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have gone astray concerning the truth by declaring that the resurrection is already past; and they are undermining the faith of some.

Ever shun foolish and puerile discussions, for you know that they lead to quarrels.

and they may come to their senses again, and escape the snare of the devil, as they are restored to life by God to do his will.

They will hate goodness, they will be treacherous, reckless, blinded with pride, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God.

For although they keep up the outward form of religion, they deny its power.

But they will not get on; for their folly will be made as openly manifest to all as was that of Jannes and Jambres.

For a time will come when they will not listen to wholesome teaching, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will heap up for themselves teachers upon teachers to satisfy their own fancies.

They will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to myths.

At the time of my first defense no one stood by me; on the contrary they all deserted me??ay it not be laid to their charge!

for they upset whole households and, for filthy lucre's sake, teach what they ought not to teach.

They profess to know God, but by their deeds they disown him; in that they are detestable, disobedient, and reprobate for good work of any sort.

They should train the younger women to love their husbands and children,

Let the instruction that you give be sound and above reproach, so that our opponents may be ashamed because they find no evil things to say about us.

not to contradict nor pilfer, but to exhibit praiseworthy trustworthiness in every thing, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.

they must speak evil of none, they must not be quarrelsome, but gentle, showing perfect meekness toward all.

Let them want nothing, and "let our people learn to devote themselves to honest work to supply the necessities of their teachers," so that they be not unfruitful.

They will perish, but thou remainest; They all will grow old like a garment,

Like a mantle thou wilt fold them up, And like a garment they will be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years will never fail.

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth for service in behalf of those who are about to inherit salvation?

For this reason I was sore displeased with that generation, And said, "They are always wandering in their hearts; They have never learned my ways";

So I swore in my wrath, "They shall never enter into my rest."

For who were they that heard and yet provoked him? Was it not all who came out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses?

And to whom did he swear that they should never enter into his rest, if not to those who had proved faithless?

So you see that it was through unbelief that they were not able to enter in.

For the Good News is come to us just as it did to them. But the message they heard was of no benefit to them, because they did not share the faith of those who gave heed to it.

We are actually entering into that rest, we who have believed, as God has said,??n my wrath I swore??They shall not enter into my Rest

and then fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance. For they repeatedly crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and expose him to an open shame.

And they indeed have been made priests, many in number, because they have been prevented by death from continuing;

Not according tot he covenant which I made with their forefathers, On the day when I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in my covenant, And therefore I disregarded them," says the Lord.

"For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel, After these days," says the Lord; "I will put my laws into their minds, And upon their hearts will I write them; And I will be their God, And they shall be my people;

And they shall not teach every man his fellow citizen, And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; For all shall know me, From the least to the greatest of them.

since they consist only in meats and drinks and various ablutions, carnal ordinances, imposed until the time of reformation.

For the Law, being only a shadow of the good things to come, and not their very substance, its priests cannot with the same sacrifice which year after year they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshippers having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sin.

These all died in faith, not having yet received the promises; nay, but they saw them from afar, and hailed them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For those who say such things make it plain that they are seeking a Fatherland.

And if they had cherished the memory of that land from which they went out, they would have found an opportunity to return;

but now they are longing for a better homeland, that is, a heavenly. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; and he has prepared a city for them.

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's decree.

By faith the people crossed over the Red Sea as on dry land; and when the Egyptians tried to do this they were swallowed up.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled seven days.

Woman received their dear ones alive from the dead; and others were broken on the wheel, not accepting the offered deliverance, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection.

They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, persecuted, tormented??38 of whom the world was not worthy??andering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

Yet, though these all had witness borne to them by their faith, they received not the promise;

since it was for us that God had in store some better thing, so that apart from us they should not be perfected.

For they only disciplined us for a few days, as seemed good to them; but he does it for our profit, that we may share his holiness.

For they could not endure that which was enjoined, Even if a wild beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned to death;

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape punishment when they refused to listen to their instructor on earth, much less shall we escape if we turn away from him who is teaching us from heaven;

Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who must give account; that they may do thus with joy and not with lamentation, for this would be unprofitable to you.

Are they not blaspheming that glorious Name by which you are called?

You believe that God is one? You do well; even the demons believe, and they shudder.

Look at the ships too, though they are so large, even when driven by fierce winds they are turned by a very small rudder, wherever the impulse of the helmsman wills.

Where do the conflicts and quarrels that go on among you come from? Do they not come from your passions which are always making war among your bodily members?

They were searching to know to what time, or to what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them kept pointing, when he ever testified beforehand concerning the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

It was revealed to them that it was not for themselves, but for you, that they were ministering the truths which have now been announced to you, by those who preached the gospel to you, through the help of the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven??ruths into which angels long to look.

and, A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. They stumble over it because they are disobeying God's word, and to this they were also appointed.

Let your manner of life before the Gentiles be honest; so that, although they are now slandering you as evil-doers, they may, by beholding your noble conduct, come to glorify God, in the day of visitation.

In the same way you wives must be submissive to your own husbands; so that if some of them will not believe the message, they may apart from the message be won over by the behavior of their wives,

when they see how pure and reverent you are.

For in this way in the olden time the holy women also, who put their trust in God, used to adorn themselves. They were ever in submission to their own husbands;

See that you have a clear conscience, so that, although they speak of you as evil-doers, these libelers of your good Christian lives may be ashamed.

They are astonished at this, that you do not run into the same excesses of profligacy as they do; and they speak evil of you.

But they must render account to Him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.

The gospel was preached for this cause to those who were dead also, that they might be judged according to men in flesh, but live according to God in spirit.

For if these virtues are yours in abounding measure, they render you not idle nor unfruitful, until you come into the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In their covetousness, with cunning words, they will make merchandise of you; those whose doom has not been idle from of old, and whose destruction has not been slumbering.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to chains of darkness, and reserved them for judgment;

especially those who spend their lives following the flesh in the lust of defilement, and in despising all authority. Audacious and willful, they feel no awe in railing against dignities;

But these men, like irrational creatures, mere animals, born to be taken and destroyed, continually rail about matters of which they know nothing. In their corruption they will surely be destroyed,

suffering wrong as the wage of wrong which they have done. These are men who count it pleasure to carouse in open daylight; they are spots and blemishes reveling in their deceit, even while they are feasting with you.

They have eyes full of harlots, eyes that cannot stop sinning. They entice unsteady souls. Their heart is trained in greed. They are an accursed generation.

They have forsaken the right way; they have lost their way, and followed the road of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrong-doing.

For speaking great swelling words of vanity, they entangle, by their lasciviousness, in the lusts of the flesh, those who are just about to escape from the men that live in misconduct.

They promise them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of rottenness! (For indeed a man is the slave of anything which masters him.)

For they willingly ignore the fact that there were heaven, from of old, and an earth formed out of water and through water, by the word of God;

It is the same in all his letters when he speaks of these things. There are indeed some things in his letters hard to understand, which the ignorant and the shifty wrest, as also they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

They came forth from us, but they did not belong to us. If they had belonged to us they would certainly have remained with us, but they went out that they might be manifest that they all are not of us.

Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets are gone out into the world.

They are of the world, and for this reason they speak as of the world, and the world listens to them.

They have borne testimony to your love before the church. You will do well to speed them on their way worthily of God;

since for the sake of the Name they have started out, taking nothing from the Gentiles.

For certain men have crept in stealthily??en predestined in ancient prophecies for this condemnation??mpious ones! They pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness, and deny Jesus Christ, our sole Master and Lord.

So also Sodom and Gomorrah and the near-by cities which in like manner glutted themselves in sensuality and unnatural vice, are exhibited as a warning of the eternal fire, in the punishment they undergo.

Yet in just the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, while they set at naught dominion and scoff at dignities.

Yet these men blaspheme about matters of which they know nothing, while they use such things as they do understand by instinct (like the animals who have no reason) for their own destruction.

Alas for them! They have walked in the path of Cain; for the sake of gain they have rushed headlong into Balaam's error, and have perished in Koran's rebellion.

These are they who are stains upon your love-feasts; when they feast sumptuously without scruple, looking after none but themselves. They are clouds without water, driven along by the winds; trees of autumn, fruitless, doubly dead, torn up by the roots,