Because you have kept ¹  my admonition ²  to endure steadfastly, ³  I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth.

They again challenged God, ¹  and offended ²  the Holy One of Israel. ³ 

In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving ¹  for meat; ²  they challenged God ³  in the desert.

Not ¹  only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope.

But as God’s servants, ¹  we have commended ourselves in every way, ²  with great endurance, in persecutions, ³  in difficulties, in distresses,

For you need endurance in order to do God’s will and so receive what is promised. ¹ 

‘I know your deeds: your love, faith, ¹  service, and steadfast endurance. ²  In fact, ³  your more recent deeds are greater than your earlier ones.

How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and insulted him ¹  in the desert!

Yet they challenged and defied ¹  the sovereign God, ²  and did not obey ³  his commands. ⁴ 

Yes, ¹  in your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday that quickly passes, or like one of the divisions of the nighttime. ² 

A person’s wisdom ¹  makes him slow to anger, ²  and it is his glory ³  to overlook ⁴  an offense.

“My people, how have I wronged you? ¹  How have I wearied you? Answer me!

eternal life to those who by perseverance in good works seek glory and honor and immortality,

And let us not put Christ ¹  to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. ² 

“Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness.

I said, ¹  “Lord, you know how I suffer. ²  Take thought of me and care for me. Pay back for me those who have been persecuting me. Do not be so patient with them that you allow them to kill me. Be mindful of how I have put up with their insults for your sake.

So be patient, brothers and sisters, ¹  until the Lord’s return. ²  Think of how the farmer waits ³  for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient ⁴  for it until it receives the early and late rains.

‘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.

Abraham ¹  said, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”