Even from among your own group ¹  men ²  will arise, teaching perversions of the truth ³  to draw the disciples away after them.

not that there really is another gospel, ¹  but ²  there are some who are disturbing you and wanting ³  to distort the gospel of Christ.

You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort ¹  the words of the righteous. ² 

speaking of these things in all his letters. ¹  Some things in these letters ²  are hard to understand, things ³  the ignorant and unstable twist ⁴  to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures. ⁵ 

Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth and leave it in ruins; he will mar its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

Listen to this, you leaders of the family ¹  of Jacob, you rulers of the nation ²  of Israel! You ³  hate justice and pervert all that is right.

But we have rejected ¹  shameful hidden deeds, ²  not behaving ³  with deceptiveness ⁴  or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God.

‘Cursed is the one who perverts justice for the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

With great power God ¹  grasps my clothing; ²  he binds me like the collar ³  of my tunic.

All day long they cause me trouble; ¹  they make a habit of plotting my demise. ² 

Deceit is in the heart of those who plot evil, ¹  but those who promote peace ²  have joy.

All the inhabitants of the coastlands are shocked at you, and their kings are horribly afraid – their faces are troubled.

Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and his disposition changed ¹  toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders ²  to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated.

The Lord has made them undiscerning; ¹  they lead Egypt astray in all she does, so that she is like a drunk sliding around in his own vomit. ² 

Or how can you say ¹  to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own?

And just as Jannes and Jambres ¹  opposed Moses, so these people – who have warped minds and are disqualified in the faith ²  – also oppose the truth.

You must no longer say that the Lord’s message is burdensome. ¹  For what is ‘burdensome’ ²  really pertains to what a person himself says. ³  You are misrepresenting ⁴  the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who rules over all. ⁵ 

How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while you yourself don’t see the beam in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.