18 “And I said to ^dtheir children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk ^ein the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, ^fnor defile yourselves with their idols. 19 ^gI am the Lord your God; ^hwalk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, 20 and ⁱkeep my Sabbaths holy that ^jthey may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’ 21 ^kBut the children ^lrebelled against me. ^mThey did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths.

ⁿ“Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. 22 ^oBut I withheld my hand ^pand acted for the sake of my name, ^qthat it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. 23 ^rMoreover, ^sI swore to them in the wilderness ^tthat I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, 24 because they had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, ^uand their eyes were set on their fathers’ idols. 25 ^vMoreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, 26 and I defiled them through ^wtheir very gifts ^win their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it ^xthat they might know that I am the Lord.

The Man of Lawlessness

1 Now concerning ^athe coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our ^bbeing gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers,¹ 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or ^calarmed, either ^dby a spirit or a ^espoken word, or ^ea letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that ^fthe day of the Lord has come. 3 ^gLet no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, ^hunless the rebellion comes first, and ⁱthe man of lawlessness² is revealed, ^jthe son of destruction,³ 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, ^kproclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For ^lthe mystery of lawlessness ^mis already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then ⁿthe lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus ^owill kill with ^pthe breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by ^qthe appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan ^rwith all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for ^sthose who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore ^tGod sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe ^uwhat is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned ^vwho did not believe the truth but ^whad pleasure in unrighteousness.