| King James Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation 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? |
| 2Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: | 2You are our letter, written in our hearts and known and read by everyone. |
| 3Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. | 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. |
| 4And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: | 4Such is the confidence that we have in God through the Messiah. |
| 5Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; | 5By ourselves we are not qualified to claim that anything comes from us. Rather, our credentials come from God, |
| 6Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 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 ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: | 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 shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? | 8will not the Spirit's ministry have even more glory? |
| 9For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. | 9For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, then the ministry of justification has an overwhelming glory. |
| 10For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. | 10In fact, that which once had glory lost its glory, because the other glory surpassed it. |
| 11For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. | 11For if that which fades away came through glory, how much more does that which is permanent have glory? |
| 12Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: | 12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we speak very boldly, |
| 13And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: | 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 blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away 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 even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. | 15Yet even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. |
| 16Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. | 16But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. |
| 17Now the Lord is that 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 open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. | 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. |
| King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. | The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. |
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