²³ to the general assembly and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

²² You shall tell Pharaoh, 'Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn,

²⁰ Nevertheless, don't rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

² Rise up, you judge of the earth. Pay back the proud what they deserve.

²⁵ Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right?"

²² He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,

⁴⁰ God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

¹⁰ For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them.

¹¹ We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end,

¹² that you won't be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherited the promises.

²⁷ Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,

⁵ (but if a man doesn't know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the assembly of God?)

⁵ This is an obvious sign of the righteous judgment of God, to the end that you may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which you also suffer.

⁶ Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you,

⁷ and to give relief to you that are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the assembly;

¹⁴ I told him, "My lord, you know." He said to me, "These are those who came out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb's blood.

¹⁵ Therefore they are before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.

¹⁶ They will never be hungry, neither thirsty any more; neither will the sun beat on them, nor any heat;

¹⁷ for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shepherds them, and leads them to springs of waters of life. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

¹² giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;

⁴ By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.

¹⁸ Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

²³ Who, when he was cursed, didn't curse back. When he suffered, didn't threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously;

⁸ All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed.

⁴ These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed by Jesus from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb.

¹⁵ If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

⁷ A very awesome God in the council of the holy ones, To be feared above all those who are around him?

³ Yes, I beg you also, true yoke-fellow, help these women, for they labored with me in the Gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

¹² Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

¹³ Brothers, I don't regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,

¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.

¹⁶ Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.

¹⁷ Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.

¹⁸ For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,

¹⁹ whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

²⁰ For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

²¹ who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

²² But if I live on in the flesh, this will bring fruit from my work; yet I don't make known what I will choose.

²³ But I am in a dilemma between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

¹ Praise Yah! I will give thanks to Yahweh with my whole heart, In the council of the upright, and in the congregation.

⁹ Let them sing before Yahweh, For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with equity.

¹³ Before Yahweh; for he comes, For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, The peoples with his truth.

²⁷ I will also appoint him my firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth.

²⁸ Let them be blotted out of the book of life, And not be written with the righteous.

⁵ "Gather my saints together to me, Those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."

⁶ The heavens shall declare his righteousness, For God himself is judge. Selah.

¹⁷ but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

³² Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin-- and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written."

⁷ And the dust returns to the earth as it was, And the spirit returns to God who gave it.

⁹ They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

²⁴ But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it;

²⁶ that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,

²⁷ that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

⁸ We are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.

⁵⁴ But when this corruptible will have put on incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: "Death is swallowed up in victory."

⁴⁹ As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let's{NU, TR read "we will" instead of "let's"} also bear the image of the heavenly.

¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.

²⁸ Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and{TR, NU omit "the Lord and"} God which he purchased with his own blood.

²⁷ He also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.

³¹ "But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.

³² Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

³³ He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

³⁴ Then the King will tell those on his right hand, 'Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

² "Sanctify to me all of the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of animal. It is mine."