¹² Then I perceived and saw that God had not sent him at all, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.^(A)

²² Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not disheartened them, and you have encouraged the wicked not to turn from their wicked way and save their lives,^(A)

¹³ cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, choice flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, slaves—and human lives.^[a](A)

³ And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.^(A)

² to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight,^[a] not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it,^[b] not for sordid gain but eagerly.^(A)

⁷ For a bishop,^[a] as God’s steward, must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or addicted to wine or violent or greedy for gain,^(A)

³ not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money.^(A)

¹⁰ to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.^(A)

¹⁵ Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.

³³ I coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing.^(A)