¹ Before God and before Christ Jesus who is to be judge of the living and the dead, I charge you, in the name of his appearing and of his kingdom:

² proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct error, give encouragement -- but do all with patience and with care to instruct.

³ The time is sure to come when people will not accept sound teaching, but their ears will be itching for anything new and they will collect themselves a whole series of teachers according to their own tastes;

⁴ and then they will shut their ears to the truth and will turn to myths.

⁵ But you must keep steady all the time; put up with suffering; do the work of preaching the gospel; fulfil the service asked of you.

⁶ As for me, my life is already being poured away as a libation, and the time has come for me to depart.

⁷ I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith;

⁸ all there is to come for me now is the crown of uprightness which the Lord, the upright judge, will give to me on that Day; and not only to me but to all those who have longed for his appearing.

⁹ Make every effort to come and see me as soon as you can.

¹⁰ As it is, Demas has deserted me for love of this life and gone to Thessalonica, Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia;

¹¹ only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you; I find him a useful helper in my work.

¹² I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

¹³ When you come, bring the cloak I left with Carpus in Troas, and the scrolls, especially the parchment ones.

¹⁴ Alexander the coppersmith has done me a lot of harm; the Lord will repay him as his deeds deserve.

¹⁵ Be on your guard against him yourself, because he has been bitterly contesting everything that we say.

¹⁶ The first time I had to present my defence, no one came into court to support me. Every one of them deserted me -- may they not be held accountable for it.

¹⁷ But the Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed for all the gentiles to hear; and so I was saved from the lion's mouth.

¹⁸ The Lord will rescue me from all evil attempts on me, and bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

¹⁹ Greetings to Prisca and Aquila, and the family of Onesiphorus.

²⁰ Erastus stayed behind at Corinth, and I left Trophimus ill at Miletus.

²¹ Make every effort to come before the winter. Greetings to you from Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers.

²² The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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