Elders Appointed to Aid Moses

¹⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me ^(A)seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and ^(B)officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. ^17 (C)And I will come down and talk with you there. And ^(D)I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and ^(E)they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone. ¹⁸ And say to the people, ^(F)‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? ^(G)For it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. ¹⁹ You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, ²⁰ but a whole month, ^(H)until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, ^(I)“Why did we come out of Egypt?”’” ²¹ But Moses said, ^(J)“The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!’ ^22 (K)Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?” ²³ And the Lord said to Moses, ^(L)“Is the Lord's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether ^(M)my word will come true for you or not.”

²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. ^(N)And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. ²⁵ Then ^(O)the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.

²⁶ Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they ^(P)had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” ²⁸ And ^(Q)Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, ^(R)stop them.” ²⁹ But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? ^(S)Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

¹⁴ For the love of Christ ^(A)controls us, because we have concluded this: that ^(B)one has died for all, therefore all have died; ¹⁵ and he died for all, ^(C)that those who live might no longer live for themselves but ^(D)for him who for their sake died and was raised.

¹⁶ From now on, therefore, ^(E)we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is ^(F)in Christ, he is ^(G)a new creation.^{[a] (H)}The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ¹⁸ All this is from God, ^(I)who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us ^(J)the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling^[b] the world to himself, ^(K)not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us ^(L)the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore, ^(M)we are ambassadors for Christ, ^(N)God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ^21 (O)For our sake he made him to be sin ^(P)who knew no sin, so that in him we might become ^(Q)the righteousness of God.

6 ^(R)Working together with him, then, ^(S)we appeal to you ^(T)not to receive the grace of God in vain. ² For he says,

Behold, ^(V)now is the ^(W)favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. ³ We ^(X)put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, ⁴ but ^(Y)as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: ^(Z)by great endurance, ^(AA)in afflictions, ^(AB)hardships, calamities, ^5 (AC)beatings, imprisonments, ^(AD)riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ^6 (AE)by purity, ^(AF)knowledge, patience, kindness, ^(AG)the Holy Spirit, ^(AH)genuine love; ⁷ by ^(AI)truthful speech, and ^(AJ)the power of God; with ^(AK)the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; ⁸ through honor and dishonor, ^(AL)through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; ⁹ as unknown, and ^(AM)yet well known; ^(AN)as dying, and behold, we live; ^(AO)as punished, and yet not killed; ^10 (AP)as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; ^(AQ)as poor, yet making many rich; ^(AR)as having nothing, ^(AS)yet possessing everything.

The New Covenant

^31 (A)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make ^(B)a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when ^(C)I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, ^(D)though I was their husband, declares the Lord. ^33 (E)For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: ^(F)I will put my law within them, and I will write it ^(G)on their hearts. ^(H)And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ ^(I)for they shall all know me, ^(J)from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For ^(K)I will forgive their iniquity, and ^(L)I will remember their sin no more.”

Ministers of the New Covenant

3 ^(A)Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, ^(B)as some do, ^(C)letters of recommendation to you, or from you? ^2 (D)You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our^[a] hearts, to be known and read by all. ³ And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of ^(E)the living God, not on ^(F)tablets of stone but on ^(G)tablets of ^(H)human hearts.^[b]

^4 (I)Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. ^5 (J)Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but ^(K)our sufficiency is from God, ⁶ who has made us sufficient to be ^(L)ministers of ^(M)a new covenant, not of ^(N)the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but ^(O)the Spirit gives life.

⁷ Now if ^(P)the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory ^(Q)that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? ⁹ For if there was glory in ^(R)the ministry of condemnation, ^(S)the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. ¹⁰ Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹ For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

¹² Since we have such a hope, ^(T)we are very bold, ¹³ not like Moses, ^(U)who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. ¹⁴ But ^(V)their minds were ^(W)hardened. For to this day, ^(X)when they read ^(Y)the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵ Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. ¹⁶ But when ^(Z)one^[c] turns to the Lord, ^(AA)the veil is removed. ¹⁷ Now the Lord^[d] is the Spirit, and where ^(AB)the Spirit of the Lord is, there is ^(AC)freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, with unveiled face, ^(AD)beholding ^(AE)the glory of the Lord,^{[e] (AF)}are being transformed into the same image ^(AG)from one degree of glory to another.^[f] For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.