2 Corinthians 1-3
Complete Jewish Bible
1 From: Sha’ul, by God’s will an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua, and brother Timothy
To: God’s Messianic community in Corinth, along with all God’s people throughout Achaia:
2 Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
3 Praised be God, Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, compassionate Father, God of all encouragement and comfort; 4 who encourages us in all our trials, so that we can encourage others in whatever trials they may be undergoing with the encouragement we ourselves have received from God.
5 For just as the Messiah’s sufferings overflow into us, so through the Messiah our encouragement also overflows. 6 So if we undergo trials, it is for your encouragement and deliverance; and if we are encouraged, that should encourage you when you have to endure sufferings like those we are experiencing. 7 Moreover, our hope for you remains staunch, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, you will also share in the encouragement.
8 For, brothers, we want you to know about the trials we have undergone in the province of Asia. The burden laid on us was so far beyond what we could bear that we even despaired of living through it. 9 In our hearts we felt we were under sentence of death. However, this was to get us to rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead! 10 He rescued us from such deadly peril, and he will rescue us again! The one in whom we have placed our hope will indeed continue to rescue us. 11 And you must add your help by praying for us; for the more people there are praying, the more people there will be to give thanks when their prayer for us is answered.
12 For we take pride in this: that our conscience assures us that in our dealings with the world, and especially with you, we have conducted ourselves with frankness and godly pureness of motive — not by worldly wisdom but by God-given grace. 13 There are no hidden meanings in our letters other than what you can read and understand; and my hope is that you will understand fully, 14 as indeed you have already understood us in part; so that on the Day of our Lord Yeshua you can be as proud of us as we are of you.
15 So sure was I of this that I had planned to come and see you, so that you might have the benefit of a second visit. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, visit you again on my way back from Macedonia, and then have you send me on my way to Y’hudah.
17 Did I make these plans lightly? Or do I make plans the way a worldly man does, ready to say, “Yes, yes,” and “No, no,” in the same breath? 18 As surely as God is trustworthy, we don’t say “Yes” when we mean “No.” 19 For the Son of God, the Messiah Yeshua, who was proclaimed among you through us — that is, through me and Sila and Timothy — was not a yes-and-no man; on the contrary, with him it is always “Yes!” 20 For however many promises God has made, they all find their “Yes” in connection with him; that is why it is through him that we say the “Amen” when we give glory to God. 21 Moreover, it is God who sets both us and you in firm union with the Messiah; he has anointed us, 22 put his seal on us, and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee for the future.
23 I call God to witness — he knows what my life is like — that the reason I held back from coming to Corinth was out of consideration for you! 24 We are not trying to dictate how you must live out your trust in the Messiah, for in your trust you are standing firm. Rather, we are working with you for your own happiness.
2 So I made up my mind that I would not pay you another painful visit. 2 For if I cause you pain, who is left to make me happy except the people I have pained? 3 Indeed, this is why I wrote as I did — so that when I came, I would not have to be pained by those who ought to be making me happy; for I had enough confidence in all of you to believe that unless I could be happy, none of you could be happy either. 4 I wrote to you with a greatly distressed and anguished heart, and with many tears, not in order to cause you pain, but to get you to realize how very much I love you.
5 Now if someone has been a cause of pain, it is not I whom he has pained, but, in some measure — I don’t want to overstate it — all of you. 6 For such a person the punishment already imposed on him by the majority is sufficient, 7 so that now you should do the opposite — forgive him, encourage him, comfort him. Otherwise such a person might be swallowed up in overwhelming depression. 8 So I urge you to show that you really do love him. 9 The reason I wrote you was to see if you would pass the test, to see if you would fully obey me. 10 Anyone you forgive, I forgive too. For indeed, whatever I have forgiven, if there has been anything to forgive, has been for your sake in the presence of the Messiah 11 so that we will not be taken advantage of by the Adversary — for we are quite aware of his schemes!
12 Now when I went to Troas to proclaim the Good News of the Messiah, since a door had been opened for me by the Lord, 13 I could not rest, because I failed to find my brother Titus. So I left the people there and went on to Macedonia.
14 But thanks be to God, who in the Messiah constantly leads us in a triumphal procession and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of what it means to know him! 15 For to God we are the aroma of the Messiah, both among those being saved and among those being lost; 16 to the latter, we are the smell of death leading only to more death; but to the former, we are the sweet smell of life leading to more life. Who is equal to such a task? 17 For we are not like a lot of folks who go about huckstering God’s message for a fee; on the contrary, we speak out of a sincere heart, as people sent by God, standing in God’s presence, living in union with the Messiah.
3 Are we starting to recommend ourselves again? Or do we, like some, need letters of recommendation either to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You make it clear that you are a letter from the Messiah placed in our care, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on human hearts.
4 Such is the confidence we have through the Messiah toward God. 5 It is not that we are competent in ourselves to count anything as having come from us; on the contrary, our competence is from God. 6 He has even made us competent to be workers serving a New Covenant, the essence of which is not a written text but the Spirit. For the written text brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
7 Now if that which worked death, by means of a written text engraved on stone tablets, came with glory — such glory that the people of Isra’el could not stand to look at Moshe’s face because of its brightness, even though that brightness was already fading away — 8 won’t the working of the Spirit be accompanied by even greater glory? 9 For if there was glory in what worked to declare people guilty, how much more must the glory abound in what works to declare people innocent! 10 In fact, by comparison with this greater glory, what was made glorious before has no glory now. 11 For if there was glory in what faded away, how much more glory must there be in what lasts.
12 Therefore, with a hope like this, we are very open — 13 unlike Moshe, who put a veil over his face, so that the people of Isra’el would not see the fading brightness come to an end.
14 What is more, their minds were made stonelike; for to this day the same veil remains over them when they read the Old Covenant; it has not been unveiled, because only by the Messiah is the veil taken away. 15 Yes, till today, whenever Moshe is read, a veil lies over their heart. 16 “But,” says the Torah, “whenever someone turns to Adonai, the veil is taken away.”[a] 17 Now, “Adonai” in this text means the Spirit. And where the Spirit of Adonai is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by Adonai the Spirit.
Footnotes
- 2 Corinthians 3:16 Exodus 34:34
Kehillah in Corinth II 1-3
Orthodox Jewish Bible
1 From Sha’ul, a Shliach of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua birtzon Hashem (by the will of G-d), and Timotiyos, the Ach b’Moshiach; To the Kehillah (Congregation) of Hashem existing in Corinth, with all the Kadoshim throughout Achaia.
2 Chen v’Chesed Hashem to you and shalom from Elohim Avinu and Adoneinu Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua.
3 Baruch hu Hashem Elohim Avi of Adoneinu Yehoshua, Avi HaRachamim vaElohei kol nechamah (comfort), [TEHILLIM 103:13; YESHAYAH 66:13]
4 The one giving us chizzuk (strengthening) with respect to all our tzoros so as to enable us to give chizzuk to the ones experiencing tzoros, and that through the nechamah (comfort) by which we ourselves are comforted (1:3) by Hashem. [YESHAYAH 49:13; 51:12; 66:13]
5 This is so because as the Chevlei Moshiach (birth pangs of Moshiach) abound to us, so through Moshiach abounds also our nechamah (1:3; YESHAYAH 51:12). [TEHILLIM 34:19; 94:19]
6 Now if we are experiencing tzoros, it is for your chizzuk (strengthening) and Yeshu’at Eloheinu; or if we are being given nechamah (comfort), it is for your nechamah that is producing in you the chozek (strength) of zitzfleisch (patience) for the endurance of the tzoros which we also suffer. [1Th 3:3]
7 And our tikvah (hope) for you is well-founded, for we have da’as that as you have deveykus (cleaving to) the Chevlei Moshiach, so also you will have deveykus to the nechamah.
8 For we do not want you to lack da’as, Achim b’Moshiach, as to the tzoros and tribulation that came upon us in Asia [Ac 19:23; 1C 15:32], that utterly beyond our strength we were burdened, causing us to come to a feeling of ye’ush (despair) even of being able to stay alive.
9 But we ourselves have had the gezar din (verdict) of mishpat mavet (a death sentence) in ourselves so that we should not have emunah (faith) in ourselves but in Hashem, Mechayyei Mesim (Who Revivest the Dead). [Shemoneh Esreh, YIRMEYAH 17:5,7]
10 The same G-d out of so great a Mavet delivered us and will continue to deliver us. We have set tikvateinu (our hope) that he will yet deliver us, [2 Ti 4:18]
11 As you also labor together for us by techinnah (supplication), so that the "Modeh Ani" for us will be said by the many (YESHAYAH 53:11-12) for the matanah (gift) granted us through the tefillos of the many.
12 For our glorying is in this: the edut (testimony) of our matzpun (conscience) [MJ 13:18] is that without remiyah (guile, fraud, deceit) and with lev tahor ("pure heart" TEHILLIM 51:12) with the sincerity of Hashem [2C 2:17] and not in the "chochmah" of the basar [1C 1:17] but in the Chen v’Chesed of Hashem, we conducted ourselves in the Olam Hazeh, and more especially toward you.
13 For we write nothing so shver (complex) to you that you cannot read and have binah (understanding), and I have tikvah that you will have da’as shlemah until HaKetz,
14 As you have already had da’as of us in part, as also we are your kavod [2C 5:12], even as also you are ours in the Yom Hashem of Adoneinu Yehoshua. [Pp 2:16]
15 And with this bitachon (confidence) I planned previously to come to you, that a second benefit you might have.
16 It was my cheshbon (plan) to visit you by way of Macedonia and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be sent on to Yehudah (Judea Ac 19:21; 1C 16:5,6).
17 This was my matarah (aim, goal); surely then I did not act with vacillation? Or when I make plans [2C 5:16], do I have a cheshbon according to the basar, ready with "Ken, Ken!" and then, "Lo! Lo!"
18 Al emunat Hashem (in the faithfulness of G-d), our dvar to you has not been "Ken" and "Lo."
19 For the Ben HaElohim, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua, the One having been proclaimed among you by us, by Sila and Timotiyos and me [Ac 18:5], was not a "Ken and Lo"; but in Him it has always been "Ken."
20 For in Moshiach every one of Hashem’s havtachot (promises) is a "Ken." For this reason it is b’Shem Moshiach that we say the "Omein" to the kavod of Hashem [1C 14:16; Rv 3:14].
21 But it is Hashem who establishes us with you in Moshiach and has given us the mishchah (anointing 1Y 2:27),
22 Having put his chotam [seal of ownership BERESHIS 38:18; YECHEZKEL 9:4; Ep 1:13; 4:30; Rv 7:4] on us and having given the eravon (pledge) of the Ruach Hakodesh in our levavot. (hearts Ro 8:16; 2C 5:5; Ep 1:14). [BERESHIS 38:18; YECHEZKEL 9:4; CHAGGAI 2:23]
23 Now, I call upon Hashem as eidus (witness) against my nefesh, my neshamah (soul), that it was to spare you that I did not come again to Corinth. [Ro 1:9; 2C 11:31; Pp 1:8; 1Th 2:5,10]
24 Not that we play the gontser macher to domineer over your emunah (faith) [1K 5:3], but we are fellow po’alim for your simcha, for by emunah you stand.
2 For I decided this in myself: not again to come to you in agmat nefesh (grief). [1C 4:21; 2C 12:21]
2 For if I grieve you, then who is the one cheering me except the one I have caused to have agmat nefesh?
3 And I wrote the iggeret as I did, so that when I came, I should not have agmat nefesh from those who should have brought me simcha; for I have confidence about you all, that my simcha would be the simcha of all of you.
4 For out of much tzoros and of lev (heart) distress I wrote the iggeret to you with many tears [Ac 20:31], not that you should have agmat nefesh, but that you may have da’as of the ahavah in Hashem which I have more abundantly for all of you.
5 Now if anyone has caused agmat nefesh (grief), it is not me he has grieved, but to some extent, not to be too severe he has grieved you all. [1C 5:1]
6 Sufficient to such a man was this onesh (penalty) by the roiv (majority),
7 So that, on the contrary, rather you ought to give selichah (forgiveness) and chozek (strength) to him lest efsher (perhaps) such a one may be swallowed up by overwhelming remorse.
8 Therefore I urge you to confirm to him your ahavah (love).
9 For I wrote the iggeret to this end, that I may have da’as that you are tested and proven, that in all things you have mishma’at (obedience). [2C 7:15; 10:6]
10 Now to anyone whom you give selichah (forgiveness) of anything, I do as well, for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sake in the presence of Moshiach;
11 Lest we should be outsmarted by Hasatan [Lk 22:31]; for we do not lack da’as of his kesharim (conspiracies).
12 But having come to Troas for the purpose of proclaiming the Besuras HaGeulah of Moshiach and a delet (door) to me having been opened by Adoneinu, [YECHEZKEL 20:14; Ac 14:27; 1C 16:9; Co 4:3; Rv 3:8]
13 I did not have shalom in my neshamah when I was not able to find Titos my Ach b’Moshiach. So I took leave of them and I went on to Macedonia.[Ac 20:1]
14 But Baruch Hashem, the One in whom we are given the nitzachon (victory), Who always leads us in triumph in Moshiach and, through us, in every place spreads the fragrance of the da’as of Him.
15 For we are the aroma of Moshiach to Hashem among the ones coming to Yeshu’at Eloheinu, and among the ones perishing:[1C 1:18; DANIEL 12:2]
16 To the latter ones a fragrance of mavet unto mavet; but to the former ones a fragrance of Chayyim (life) unto Chayyim [Lk 2:34]. Who is sufficient for these things? [2C 3:5-6]
17 For we are not as many, peddling the dvar Hashem, but as from sincerity, as from Hashem, in the presence of Hashem, in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach we speak. [2C 1:12; 1K 4:11]
3 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? [2C 5:12] Or surely we do not need, as some do, iggrot of haskama (letters of approval, commendation) to you or from you? [Ac 18:27; Ro 16:1]
2 You are our iggeret, written on our levavot, being known and being read by kol Bnei Adam.[1C 9:2]
3 And you show that you are an iggeret from Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, prepared by us, having been written not with ink but with the Ruach Hakodesh of the Elohim Chayyim, not on luchot of stone [SHEMOT 24:12; 31:18; 32:15,16; 34:1; DEVARIM 9:10,11] but on luchot of lev basar. [ MISHLE 3:3; 7:3; YIRMEYAH 31:33; YECHEZKEL 11:19; 36:26]
4 Such is the bitachon (confidence) that we have through Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach toward Hashem.
5 Not that we are competent from ourselves to claim anything as of ourselves, but our competence is from Hashem, [2C 2:16]
6 Who also made us competent as klei kodesh mesharetim (ministers) of a Brit Chadasha [SHEMOT 24:8; YIRMEYAH 31:31; 32:40; 2C 11:25; MJ 8:8-13]‖not of chumra (not of strict adherence to the letter of the law, legalism), but of the Ruach Hakodesh: for the chumra (letter of the law) kills, but the Ruach Hakodesh gives Chayyim (life). [Yn 6:63; Ro 7:6].
7 Now if the sherut of mavet chiseled in letters engraved on luchot of stone came with kavod (glory), so that the Bnei Yisroel were not able to gaze into the face of Moshe Rabbeinu because of P’NI MOSHE KI KARON ("face of Moshe Rabbeinu that he was radiant" SHEMOT 34:35) because of the kavod (glory) of his face, the kavod (glory) which is fading, [SHEMOT 34:29-34; YESHAYAH 42:21]
8 Then how much more will the avodas kodesh ministry of the Ruach Hakodesh come in kavod (glory)?
9 For if there was kavod in the sherut of harsha’ah (condemnation) [DEVARIM 27:26], how much more abounds in kavod the sherut of tzedek [DANIEL 9:24].[Ro 1:17;3:21]
10 For indeed what once had kavod has lost its kavod [SHEMOT 34:29-30] on account of the surpassing kavod (glory).
11 For if the thing which now is fading away came with kavod (glory), much more has that which remains come in kavod.
12 Since, then, we have such a tikvah (hope), we act with much boldness.
13 And we are not as Moshe Rabbeinu, who was putting HAMMASVEH Al PANAV ("the veil over his face" SHEMOT 34:33, 35) so that the Bnei Yisroel might not see the end of the fading kavod.
14 But their minds were hardened; [Ro 11:25] for until the present day the same veil remains unlifted at the Kri’at HaSefer Torah (the reading of Torah in shul), because the veil is taken away in Moshiach.
15 But even today, whenever Moshe [Rabbeinu] is being read, a veil lies on their levavot.
16 But whenever one turns to Adoneinu HAMMASVEH is taken away. [SHEMOT 34:34; YESHAYAH 25:7; Ro 11:23-26]
17 Now Adoneinu is HaRuach and where HaRuach Adoneinu is, there is cherut (freedom). [YESHAYAH 61:1,2; Yn 7:39; 8:32,36; Ro 8:2; Ga 5:1,13]
18 Now all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the kavod of Adoneinu [SHEMOT 16:7; 24:17] as if reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same demut from kavod to kavod, even as from HaAdon, HaRuach.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International