2 Corinthians 10, Additional Reading Isaiah 34

Monday, February 03, 2025
 

Paul Describes Himself

10 Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am [a]meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent! 2 I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but [b]divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

7 [c]You are looking at [d]things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. 8 For even if I boast somewhat [e]further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame, 9 [f]for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters. 10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his [g]personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.” 11 Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present.

12 For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with [h]some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. 13 But we will not boast beyond our measure, but [i]within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we did not reach to you, for we were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ; 15 not boasting beyond our measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we will be, [j]within our sphere, enlarged even more by you, 16 so as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast [k]in what has been accomplished in the sphere of another. 17 But he who boasts is to boast in the Lord. 18 For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Corinthians 10:1 Lit lowly
  2. 2 Corinthians 10:4 Or mighty before God
  3. 2 Corinthians 10:7 Or Look at... or Do you look at...?
  4. 2 Corinthians 10:7 Lit what is before your face
  5. 2 Corinthians 10:8 Or more abundantly
  6. 2 Corinthians 10:9 Lit so that I may not seem
  7. 2 Corinthians 10:10 Lit bodily presence is weak
  8. 2 Corinthians 10:12 Or any
  9. 2 Corinthians 10:13 Lit according to the measure
  10. 2 Corinthians 10:15 Lit according to our sphere
  11. 2 Corinthians 10:16 Lit to the things prepared in the
 
 

God’s Wrath against Nations

34 Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples!
Let the earth and [a]all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.
2 For the Lord’s indignation is against all the nations,
And His wrath against all their armies;
He has [b]utterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to slaughter.
3 So their slain will be thrown out,
And their corpses [c]will give off their stench,
And the mountains will [d]be drenched with their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven will [e]wear away,
And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;
All their hosts will also wither away
As a leaf withers from the vine,
Or as one withers from the fig tree.
5 For My sword is satiated in heaven,
Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom
And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.
6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It is [f]sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen will also [g]fall with them
And young bulls with strong ones;
Thus their land will be soaked with blood,
And their dust [h]become greasy with fat.
8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
A year of recompense for the [i]cause of Zion.
9 [j]Its streams will be turned into pitch,
And its loose earth into brimstone,
And its land will become burning pitch.
10 It will not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation it will be desolate;
None will pass through it forever and ever.
11 But [k]pelican and hedgehog will possess it,
And [l]owl and raven will dwell in it;
And He will stretch over it the line of [m]desolation
And the [n]plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles—there is no one there
Whom they may proclaim king—
And all its princes will be nothing.
13 Thorns will come up in its fortified towers,
Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;
It will also be a haunt of jackals
And an abode of ostriches.
14 The desert creatures will meet with the [o]wolves,
The [p]hairy goat also will cry to its kind;
Yes, the [q]night monster will settle there
And will find herself a resting place.
15 The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there,
And it will hatch and gather them under its [r]protection.
Yes, the [s]hawks will be gathered there,
Every one with its kind.

16 Seek from the book of the Lord, and read:

Not one of these will be missing;
None will lack its mate.
For [t]His mouth has commanded,
And His Spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it to them by line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 34:1 Lit its fullness
  2. Isaiah 34:2 Lit put under the ban
  3. Isaiah 34:3 Lit their stench will go up
  4. Isaiah 34:3 Lit dissolve
  5. Isaiah 34:4 Lit rot
  6. Isaiah 34:6 Lit made fat
  7. Isaiah 34:7 Lit go down
  8. Isaiah 34:7 Lit made fat
  9. Isaiah 34:8 Or controversy
  10. Isaiah 34:9 I.e. Edom’s
  11. Isaiah 34:11 Or owl or jackdaw
  12. Isaiah 34:11 Or great horned owl
  13. Isaiah 34:11 Or formlessness
  14. Isaiah 34:11 Lit stones of void
  15. Isaiah 34:14 Or howling creatures
  16. Isaiah 34:14 Or demon
  17. Isaiah 34:14 Heb Lilith
  18. Isaiah 34:15 Lit shade
  19. Isaiah 34:15 Or kites
  20. Isaiah 34:16 So DSS; M.T. My

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