Now take your positions, so I may confront you ¹  before the Lord regarding all the Lord’s just actions toward you and your ancestors. ² 

Today I am weak, even though I am anointed as king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too much for me to bear! ¹  May the Lord punish appropriately the one who has done this evil thing!” ² 

The rest of the events of Shallum’s reign, including the conspiracy he organized, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. ¹ 

After these faithful deeds were accomplished, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah. He besieged the fortified cities, intending to seize them. ¹ 

Throughout that night the king was unable to sleep, ¹  so he asked for the book containing the historical records ²  to be brought. As the records ³  were being read in the king’s presence,

The powerful will be like ¹  a thread of yarn, their deeds like a spark; both will burn together, and no one will put out the fire.

For a fool speaks disgraceful things; ¹  his mind plans out sinful deeds. ²  He commits godless deeds ³  and says misleading things about the Lord; he gives the hungry nothing to satisfy their appetite ⁴  and gives the thirsty nothing to drink. ⁵ 

for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” ¹  says the Lord. “Because they burned incense on the mountains and offended ²  me on the hills, I will punish them in full measure.” ³ 

He said through them, ¹  ‘Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and stop doing the evil things you are doing. ²  If you do, I will allow you to continue to live here in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors as a lasting possession. ³ 

Maybe they will pay attention and each of them will stop living the evil way they do. ¹  If they do that, then I will forgo destroying them ²  as I had intended to do because of the wicked things they have been doing. ³ 

But correct the way you have been living and do what is right. ¹  Obey the Lord your God. If you do, the Lord will forgo destroying you as he threatened he would. ² 

On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do ¹  many powerful deeds?’

For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. ¹ 

“But I have a testimony greater than that from John. For the deeds ¹  that the Father has assigned me to complete – the deeds ²  I am now doing – testify about me that the Father has sent me.

I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  the person who believes in me will perform ²  the miraculous deeds ³  that I am doing, ⁴  and will perform ⁵  greater deeds ⁶  than these, because I am going to the Father.

If I had not performed ¹  among them the miraculous deeds ²  that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. ³  But now they have seen the deeds ⁴  and have hated both me and my Father. ⁵ 

“Men of Israel, ¹  listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, ²  wonders, and miraculous signs ³  that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know –

This saying ¹  is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on such truths, ²  so that those who have placed their faith in God may be intent on engaging in good works. These things are good and beneficial for all people.

And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here ¹  in reverence.

‘I know your works as well as your ¹  labor and steadfast endurance, and that you cannot tolerate ²  evil. You have even put to the test ³  those who refer to themselves as apostles (but are not), and have discovered that they are false.