not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day ¹  drawing near. ² 

Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul,

Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, ¹  be on your guard that you do not get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men ²  and fall from your firm grasp on the truth. ³ 

“When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I set an obstacle ¹  before him, he will die. If you have not warned him, he will die for his sin. The righteous deeds he performed will not be considered, but I will hold you accountable for his death.

But the Lord said to him, “All right then, ¹  if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much.” ²  Then the Lord put a special mark ³  on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down. ⁴ 

You must set boundaries ¹  for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed ²  to yourselves not to go up on the mountain nor touch its edge. Whoever touches the mountain will surely be put to death!

They must keep my charge so that they do not incur sin on account of it ¹  and therefore die ²  because they profane it. I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

I declare to you this very day that you will certainly ¹  perish! You will not extend your time in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. ² 

Now send word quickly to David and warn him, ¹  “Don’t spend the night at the fords of the desert ²  tonight. Instead, be sure you cross over, ³  or else the king and everyone who is with him may be overwhelmed.” ⁴ 

So the king of Israel sent a message to the place the prophet had pointed out, warning it ¹  to be on its guard. This happened on several occasions. ² 

With the timber the king made steps ¹  for the Lord’s temple and royal palace as well as stringed instruments ²  for the musicians. No one had seen anything like them in the land of Judah prior to that. ³ )

The Lord God of their ancestors ¹  continually warned them through his messengers, ²  for he felt compassion for his people and his dwelling place.

The Beloved to the Maidens: I adjure you, ¹  O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does ²  of the open fields: ³  Do not awaken or arouse ⁴  love ⁵  until it pleases! ⁶ 

The Adjuration Refrain The Beloved to the Maidens: ¹ I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: “Do not awake or arouse love until it pleases!”

‘Look, a time is coming when everything in your palace and the things your ancestors ¹  have accumulated to this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.

“Run for safety, people of Benjamin! Get out of Jerusalem! ¹  Sound the trumpet ²  in Tekoa! Light the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem! For disaster lurks ³  out of the north; it will bring great destruction. ⁴ 

A third time he said to them, “Why? What wrong has he done? I have found him guilty ¹  of no crime deserving death. ²  I will therefore flog ³  him and release him.”

But some itinerant ¹  Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name ²  of the Lord Jesus over those who were possessed by ³  evil spirits, saying, “I sternly warn ⁴  you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.”

Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, ¹  to watch out for those who create dissensions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them!

So as your fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings and as one who shares in the glory that will be revealed, I urge the elders among you: