Passage

2 Timothy 4.2

Book: 2 Timothy · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

I charge thee in the sight of God, and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:

2. preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; 4. and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:1-4, ASV)

WEB

I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom:

2. preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.

For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts; 4. and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables. (2 Timothy 4:1-4, WEB)

KJV

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

2. Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:1-4, KJV)

YLT

I do fully testify, then, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is about to judge living and dead at his manifestation and his reign

2. preach the word; be earnest in season, out of season, convict, rebuke, exhort, in all long-suffering and teaching,

for there shall be a season when the sound teaching they will not suffer, but according to their own desires to themselves they shall heap up teachers, itching in the hearing, 4. and indeed, from the truth the hearing they shall turn away, and to the fables they shall be turned aside. (2 Timothy 4:1-4, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul, writing under his own name
Audience: Timothy, Paul's delegate at Ephesus
Location: written from imprisonment at Rome to Timothy at Ephesus
Time period: c. AD 64-67, traditionally Paul's last letter, written from a second Roman imprisonment shortly before his execution

Theological reading

"Preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching."

The imperative is kēryxon, herald it, the verb matching the office Paul claimed at 1:11. A herald's authority is entirely borrowed; he announces what he was given. "In season, out of season" is a compressed pair meaning at convenient and inconvenient times alike, which removes receptiveness as a precondition for speaking.

The three verbs escalate from reproof through rebuke to exhortation, and then the sentence turns: all of it is to be done "with all longsuffering and teaching." Those two qualifiers are what keep the command from licensing harangue. Longsuffering sets the pace, teaching sets the method, and 2:24-26 has already explained why. Verses 3-4 supply the reason for the urgency, that a time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine._

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G3056 - logos, logos, Strong's G3056
G3956 - pas, pas, Strong's G3956

Quoted in

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.