| New American Standard Bible 1995 | International Standard Version |
| 1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation 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 are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; | 2You are our letter, written in our hearts and known and read by everyone. |
| 3being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. | 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. |
| 4Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. | 4Such is the confidence that we have in God through the Messiah. |
| 5Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, | 5By ourselves we are not qualified to claim that anything comes from us. Rather, our credentials come from God, |
| 6who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives 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. |
| 7But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, | 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 fail to be even more with glory? | 8will not the Spirit's ministry have even more glory? |
| 9For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. | 9For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, then the ministry of justification has an overwhelming glory. |
| 10For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory 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 that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. | 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 in our speech, | 12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we speak very boldly, |
| 13and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently 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 hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed 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. |
| 15But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; | 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 taken away. | 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 liberty. | 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord's Spirit is, there is freedom. |
| 18But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, 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. |
| New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit //www.lockman.org | The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. |
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