2 Corinthians, 3

1. Are we beginning to commend ourselves to you afresh -- as though we needed, like some others, to have letters of commendation either to you or from you?

1. Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some [others], epistles of commendation to you, or [letters] of commendation from you?

2. You yourselves are our letter, written in our hearts, that everyone can read and understand;

2. Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

3. and it is plain that you are a letter from Christ, entrusted to our care, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not on stone tablets but on the tablets of human hearts.

3. [Forasmuch 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.

4. Such is the confidence we have through Christ in facing God;

4. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:

5. it is not that we are so competent that we can claim any credit for ourselves; all our competence comes from God.

5. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency [is] of God;

6. He has given us the competence to be ministers of a new covenant, a covenant which is not of written letters, but of the Spirit; for the written letters kill, but the Spirit gives life.

6. Who 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.

7. Now if the administering of death, engraved in letters on stone, occurred in such glory that the Israelites could not look Moses steadily in the face, because of its glory, transitory though this glory was,

7. But 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:

8. how much more will the ministry of the Spirit occur in glory!

8. How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

9. For if it is glorious to administer condemnation, to administer saving justice is far richer in glory.

9. For if the ministration of condemnation [be] glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

10. Indeed, what was once considered glorious has lost all claim to glory, by contrast with the glory which transcends it.

10. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

11. For if what was transitory had any glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts for ever.

11. For if that which is done away [was] glorious, much more that which remaineth [is] glorious.

12. With a hope like this, we can speak with complete fearlessness;

12. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:

13. not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites should not watch the end of what was transitory.

13. And 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:

14. But their minds were closed; indeed, until this very day, the same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament: it is not lifted, for only in Christ is it done away with.

14. But 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.

15. As it is, to this day, whenever Moses is read, their hearts are covered with a veil,

15. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

16. and this veil will not be taken away till they turn to the Lord.

16. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.

17. Now this Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

17. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty.

18. And all of us, with our unveiled faces like mirrors reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the image that we reflect in brighter and brighter glory; this is the working of the Lord who is the Spirit.

18. But 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.