2 Corinthians 3, Additional Reading Isaiah 27

Monday, January 27, 2025
 

Ministers of a New Covenant

3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? 2 You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, [a]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 [b]human hearts.

4 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who 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.

7 But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came [c]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, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. 10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if that which fades away was [d]with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

12 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, 13 and 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. 14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil [e]remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. 15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But 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.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Corinthians 3:3 Lit served
  2. 2 Corinthians 3:3 Lit hearts of flesh
  3. 2 Corinthians 3:7 Or in glory
  4. 2 Corinthians 3:11 Lit through
  5. 2 Corinthians 3:14 Or remains, it not being revealed that it is done away in Christ
 
 

The Deliverance of Israel

27 In that day the Lord will punish [a]Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
With His fierce and great and mighty sword,
Even [b]Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

2 In that day,
“A [c]vineyard of wine, sing of it!
3 “I, the Lord, am its keeper;
I water it every moment.
So that no one will [d]damage it,
I guard it night and day.
4 “I have no wrath.
Should [e]someone give Me briars and thorns in battle,
Then I would step on them, I would burn them [f]completely.
5 “Or let him [g]rely on My protection,
Let him make peace with Me,
Let him make peace with Me.”
6 [h]In the days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the [i]whole world with fruit.

7 Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has He struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain, [j]have they been slain?
8 You contended with them [k]by banishing them, by driving them away.
With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore through this Jacob’s iniquity will be forgiven;
And this will be [l]the full price of the [m]pardoning of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones;
When [n]Asherim and incense altars will not stand.
10 For the fortified city is isolated,
A [o]homestead forlorn and forsaken like the desert;
There the calf will graze,
And there it will lie down and [p]feed on its branches.
11 When its limbs are dry, they are broken off;
Women come and make a fire with them,
For they are not a people of discernment,
Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them.
And their Creator will not be gracious to them.

12 In that day the Lord will start His threshing from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. 13 It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 27:1 Or sea monster
  2. Isaiah 27:1 Or sea monster
  3. Isaiah 27:2 Some mss read a vineyard of delight
  4. Isaiah 27:3 Lit punish
  5. Isaiah 27:4 Lit who
  6. Isaiah 27:4 Lit altogether
  7. Isaiah 27:5 Lit take hold of
  8. Isaiah 27:6 Lit Those coming
  9. Isaiah 27:6 Lit face of
  10. Isaiah 27:7 Lit he was slain
  11. Isaiah 27:8 Some ancient versions read by exact measure
  12. Isaiah 27:9 Lit all the fruit
  13. Isaiah 27:9 Lit removing
  14. Isaiah 27:9 I.e. wooden symbols of a female deity
  15. Isaiah 27:10 Lit pasture
  16. Isaiah 27:10 Lit consume

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