Seventy Elders to Assist Moses

¹⁶ The Lord therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me ^(A)seventy men from the elders of Israel, ^(B)whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their stand there with you. ^17 (C)Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take away some of ^(D)the Spirit who is upon you, and put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it by yourself. ¹⁸ And you shall say to the people, ‘^(E)Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept ^(F)in the ears of the Lord, saying, “^[a]Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well-off in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. ¹⁹ You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, ^20 [b]but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nose and ^[c]makes you nauseated; because ^(G)you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’” ²¹ But Moses said, “The people, among whom I am included, are six hundred thousand on foot! Yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, so that they may eat for a whole month.’ ²² Are flocks and herds to be slaughtered for them, so that it will be sufficient for them? Or are all the fish of the sea to be ^[d]caught for them, so that it will be sufficient for them?” ²³ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Is ^(H)the Lord’s ^[e]power too little? Now you shall see whether ^(I)My word will ^[f]come true for you or not.”

²⁴ So Moses went out and ^(J)told the people the words of the Lord. He also gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and positioned them around the tent. ^25 (K)Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took away some of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. Yet they did not do it again.

²⁶ But two men had remained in the camp; the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the ^[g]other, Medad. And ^(L)the Spirit rested upon them (and they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ So a young man ran and informed Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” ²⁸ Then ^(M)Joshua the son of Nun, the personal servant of Moses from his youth, responded and said, “^(N)My lord Moses, restrain them!” ²⁹ But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? ^(O)If only all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”

¹⁴ For the love of Christ ^(A)controls us, having concluded this, that ^(B)one died for all, therefore all died; ¹⁵ and He died for all, so that those who live would no longer ^(C)live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose on their behalf.

¹⁶ Therefore from now on we recognize no one ^[a](D)by the flesh; even though we have known Christ by the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore if anyone is ^(E)in Christ, this person is ^(F)a new ^[b]creation; ^(G)the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. ¹⁸ Now ^(H)all these things are from God, ^(I)who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ^(J)ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ namely, that ^(K)God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, ^(L)not counting their wrongdoings against them, and ^[c]He has ^[d]committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰ Therefore, we are ^(M)ambassadors for Christ, ^(N)as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be ^(O)reconciled to God. ²¹ He made Him who ^(P)knew no sin to be ^[e](Q)sin in our behalf, so that we might become the ^(R)righteousness of God in Him.

Their Ministry Commended

6 And ^(S)working together with Him, ^(T)we also urge you not to receive ^(U)the grace of God in vain— ² for He says,

Behold, now is “a favorable time,” behold, now is “a day of salvation”— ^3 (W)giving no reason for taking offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, ⁴ but in everything ^(X)commending ourselves as ^[f](Y)servants of God, ^(Z)in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in difficulties, ⁵ in ^(AA)beatings, in imprisonments, in ^(AB)[g]mob attacks, in labors, in sleeplessness, in ^(AC)hunger, ⁶ in purity, in ^(AD)knowledge, in ^(AE)patience, in kindness, in the ^(AF)Holy Spirit, in ^(AG)genuine love, ⁷ in ^(AH)the word of truth, and in ^(AI)the power of God; by ^(AJ)the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, ⁸ by glory and ^(AK)dishonor, by ^(AL)evil report and good report; regarded as ^(AM)deceivers and yet ^(AN)true; ⁹ as unknown and yet well known, as ^(AO)dying and yet behold, ^(AP)we are alive; as ^[h]punished and yet not put to death, ¹⁰ as ^(AQ)sorrowful yet always ^(AR)rejoicing, as ^(AS)poor yet making many rich, as ^(AT)having nothing and yet possessing ^(AU)all things.

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

Ministers of a New Covenant

3 Are we beginning to ^(A)commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, ^(B)letters of commendation to you or from you? ^2 (C)You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all people, ³ revealing yourselves, that you are a letter of Christ, ^[a](D)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 ^[b](H)human hearts.

⁴ Such is the ^(I)confidence we have toward God through Christ. ⁵ Not that we are adequate in ourselves so as to consider anything as having come from ourselves, but ^(J)our adequacy is from God, ⁶ who also made us adequate as ^(K)servants of a ^(L)new covenant, not of ^(M)the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but ^(N)the Spirit gives life.

⁷ But if the ^(O)ministry of death, engraved ^(P)in letters on stones, came ^[c]with glory ^(Q)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 ^(R)the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ^(S)ministry of righteousness excel 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 (T)Therefore, having such a hope, ^(U)we use great boldness in our speech, ¹³ and we are not like Moses, ^(V)who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not stare at the end of what was fading away. ¹⁴ But their minds were ^(W)hardened; for until this very day at the ^(X)reading of ^(Y)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 hearts; ^16 (Z)but whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where ^(AA)the Spirit of the Lord is, ^(AB)there is freedom. ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled faces, ^(AC)looking as in a mirror at the ^(AD)glory of the Lord, are being ^(AE)transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from ^(AF)the Lord, the Spirit.