| Holman Christian Standard Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you? | 1Are we beginning to recommend ourselves again? Unlike some people, we do not need letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? |
| 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by everyone. | 2You are our letter, written in our hearts and known and read by everyone. |
| 3It is clear that you are Christ's letter, produced by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God--not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh. | 3You are demonstrating that you are the Messiah's letter, produced by our service, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. |
| 4We have this kind of confidence toward God through Christ. | 4Such is the confidence that we have in God through the Messiah. |
| 5It is not that we are competent in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our competence is from God. | 5By ourselves we are not qualified to claim that anything comes from us. Rather, our credentials come from God, |
| 6He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life. | 6who has also qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, which is not written but spiritual, because the written text brings death, but the Spirit gives life. |
| 7Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to look directly at Moses' face because of the glory from his face--a fading glory-- | 7Now if the ministry of death that was inscribed in letters of stone came with such glory that the people of Israel could not gaze on Moses' face (because the glory was fading away from it), |
| 8how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? | 8will not the Spirit's ministry have even more glory? |
| 9For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness overflows with even more glory. | 9For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, then the ministry of justification has an overwhelming glory. |
| 10In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. | 10In fact, that which once had glory lost its glory, because the other glory surpassed it. |
| 11For if what was fading away was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious. | 11For if that which fades away came through glory, how much more does that which is permanent have glory? |
| 12Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness. | 12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we speak very boldly, |
| 13We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites could not stare at the end of what was fading away, | 13not like Moses, who kept covering his face with a veil to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of what was fading away. |
| 14but their minds were closed. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ. | 14However, their minds were hardened, for to this day the same veil is still there when they read the old covenant. Only in union with the Messiah is that veil removed. |
| 15Even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, | 15Yet even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. |
| 16but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. | 16But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. |
| 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. | 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord's Spirit is, there is freedom. |
| 18We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit. | 18As all of us reflect the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, we are becoming more like him with ever-increasing glory by the Lord's Spirit. |
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