As many as are slaves under the yoke should regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, lest the name of God and  ¹our teaching be  ²blasphemed.

And those who have believing masters should not despise them, because they are brothers; but rather they should  ¹serve them, because those who recompense them for the kindly service received are believers and beloved. These things teach and exhort.

If anyone teaches  ¹different things and does not consent to  ²healthy words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching which is according to  ³godliness,

He is  ¹blinded with pride, understanding nothing, but is  ²diseased with questionings and contentions of words, out of which come envy, strife,  ³slanders, evil suspicions,

 ¹Perpetual wranglings of men corrupted in mind and  ²deprived of the  ³truth,  ⁴supposing godliness to be a means of gain.

But godliness with  ¹contentment is  ²great gain;

For  ¹we have brought nothing into the world, because neither can we carry anything out.

But having food and  ¹covering, with these we will be  ²content.

But those who  ¹intend to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful  ²desires, which  ³plunge men into  ⁴destruction and ruin.

For the love of money is  ¹a root of all evils, because of which some,  ²aspiring after money, have  ³been led away from the  ⁴faith and pierced themselves through with many pains.

But you, O  ¹man of God, flee these things, and pursue  ²righteousness,  ³godliness,  ⁴faith,  ⁵love,  ⁶endurance,  ⁷meekness.

 ¹Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold on the  ²eternal life,  ³to which you were called and have  ⁴confessed the good confession before many witnesses.

I charge you before God, who preserves all things in life, and Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,

To keep  ¹the commandment spotless, without reproach, until the  ²appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

 ¹Which in its own times  ²the blessed and only Sovereign will show, the King of those who reign as kings and Lord of those who rule as lords,

Who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and eternal might. Amen.

Charge those who are rich in the present age not to be high-minded, nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches but on God, who affords us all things richly for our enjoyment;

To do  ¹good, to be  ²rich in good works, to be ready to distribute, to be ones willing to share;

Laying away for themselves a good foundation as a treasure for the  ¹future, that they may lay hold on  ²that which is really life.

O Timothy, guard the  ¹deposit, turning away from profane, vain babblings and oppositions from  ²what is falsely called knowledge,

The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,

Inquire for us of Jehovah, for  ¹Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps Jehovah will deal with us according to all His wonderful deeds, so that he goes up from us.

Then Jeremiah said to them, Thus you will say to Zedekiah,

Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I am about to turn back the weapons of war which are in your hand and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans, who are besieging you outside the walls; and I will gather them together into the midst of this city.

I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm and in anger and wrath and great indignation.

And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence.

And afterward, declares Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiah the king of Judah and his servants and the people who remain in this city after the pestilence and after the sword and after the famine into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and he will strike them with the edge of the sword and will not pity them or spare them or have compassion on them.

And to this people you shall say, Thus says Jehovah, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.

He who remains in this city will die by sword and by famine and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live and have his own life as spoil.

For I have set My face against this city for evil and not for good, declares Jehovah; it will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.

And to the house of the king of Judah say, Hear the word of Jehovah,

O house of David, thus says Jehovah:
Execute judgment every morning,
And deliver him who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor,
Lest My wrath go forth like fire
And burn, and there be no one to extinguish it,
Because of the evil of your deeds.

Indeed, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,
O rock of the plateau, declares Jehovah,
Those who say, Who will come down against us,
And who will enter into our habitations?

But I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds,
Declares Jehovah,
And I will kindle a fire in her forest,
And it will devour all that is around her.

Thus says Jehovah, Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there,

And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people, who enter through these gates:

Thus says Jehovah, Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver him who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor, and do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the orphan, or the widow; nor shed innocent blood in this place.

For if you indeed do this thing, then kings sitting in David's place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses —  ¹the king and his servants and his people will come through the gates of this house;

But if you do not listen to these things, I swear by Myself, declares Jehovah, that this house will become a ruin.

For thus says Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah,
You are Gilead to Me,
The summit of Lebanon;
Yet I will surely make you a wilderness,
Cities that are not inhabited.

And I will set apart destroyers against you,
Each with his weapons;
And they will cut down your choice cedars
And cast them into the fire.

And many nations will pass by this city, and they will say each one to his neighbor, Why has Jehovah done this to this great city?

And they will say, It is because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.

Do not weep for the one who died, nor lament for him;
But weep bitterly for the one who goes away,
For he will no longer return and see
The land of his birth.

For thus says Jehovah concerning  ¹Shallum the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who became king in the place of Josiah his father, who went away from this place: He will not return there anymore;

But in the place where they have exiled him he will die and never see this land again.

Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness
And his upper rooms by injustice,
Who uses his neighbor's service without wages
And does not give him recompense for his work,

Who says, I will build myself a large house
With spacious upper chambers,
And cuts out for it windows; and it is paneled with cedar
And painted with vermilion.

Are you a king because you
Excel in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink,
And execute judgment and righteousness? Thus it was well with him.

He judged the cause of the poor and needy; thus it was well.
Is not this to know Me?
Declares Jehovah.

But you have eyes and a heart
Only for your unjust gain
And for shedding innocent blood
And for oppression and doing violence.

Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah,
They will not wail for him, saying,
Alas, my brother! or, Alas, sister!
They will not wail for him, saying,
Alas, lord! or, Alas, his majesty!

He will be buried with the burial of a donkey —
Dragged and cast out
Beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

Go up to Lebanon and cry out;
And lift up your voice in Bashan,
And cry out from Abarim,
For all your lovers have been shattered.

I spoke to you in your prosperity;
But you said, I will not listen.
This has been your way from your youth,
That you have not listened to My voice.

The wind will shepherd all your shepherds,
And your lovers will go into captivity;
Then you will be ashamed and confounded
Because of all your wickedness.

O inhabitant of Lebanon,
Nested among the cedars,
How you will be pitied when pains come to you,
Anguish like that of a woman giving birth.

As I live, declares Jehovah, Even though  ¹Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would tear you off,

And I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life and into the hand of those whom you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

I will cast you and your mother who bore you far away into another land where you were not born, and there you will die.

But to the land to which they desire to return, they will not return.

Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered container?
Or is he a vessel no one delights in?
Why are he and his seed thrown away
And cast into a land which they do not know?

O land, land, land,
Hear the word of Jehovah:

Thus says Jehovah,
Write down this man as childless,
A man who will not prosper in his days;
For none of his  ¹seed will prosper
By sitting on the throne of David
Or by ruling again in Judah.

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture, declares Jehovah.

Therefore thus says Jehovah the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who shepherd My people, You have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not visited them; I will visit upon you the evil of your deeds, declares Jehovah.

Then I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their pasture; and they will be fruitful and multiply.

And I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they will no longer fear or be dismayed, nor will any be missing, declares Jehovah.

Indeed, days are coming,
Declares Jehovah,
When I will raise up to David a righteous  ¹Shoot;
And He will reign as  ²King and act prudently
And will execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell securely;
And this is His name by which He will be called,
 ¹Jehovah  ²our  ³righteousness.

Therefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when they will no longer say, As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

But, As Jehovah lives, who brought up and led back the seed of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where I had driven them, that they might dwell in their own land.