¹⁸ When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai,^(A) he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone^(B) inscribed by the finger of God.^(C)

¹⁶ The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.^(A)

³ You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God,^(A) not on tablets of stone^(B) but on tablets of human hearts.^(C)

⁴ Such confidence^(D) we have through Christ before God. ⁵ Not that we are competent in ourselves^(E) to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.^{(F) 6} He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant^(G)—not of the letter^(H) but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.^(I)

The Greater Glory of the New Covenant

⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death,^(J) which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory,^(K) transitory though it was, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? ⁹ If the ministry that brought condemnation^(L) was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!^(M)