OrthJBC - I Corinthians - 9

9:1  Do I not have cherut [in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach]? Am I not a shliach? Have I not seen Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Adoneinu? Are you not my po'al (work) in Adoneinu?

9:2  If to others I am not a shliach, surely I am to you, for you are the chatam (seal) of my shlichut (Gal.2:10), in Hashem.

9:3  My apologetic to the ones cross-examining me is this:

9:4  Do I not have the privilege of eating and drinking?

9:5  Is the privilege not mine to take an achot b'Moshiach as isha in my travels for Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach's avodas kodesh, just as the rest of his Shluchim do and the Achim of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Adoneinu and Kefa?

9:6  Or is it only Bar-Nabba and I who are denied the privilege of not working at a parnasah?

9:7  Whoever heard of someone serving as a chaiyal (soldier) but having to pay his own wages for doing so? Who plants a kerem (vineyard) but does not eat the p'ri hakerem? And who serves as a ro'eh (shepherd) over a flock and of the chalav (milk) of the flock does not partake? [Devarim 20:6; Mishle 27:18]

9:8  Do I say this according to the dvar haBnei Adam? Or does not the Torah say these things?

9:9  For, in the Torah of Moshe Rabbenu it has been written, LO TACHSOM SHOR BEDISHO ("You shall not muzzle an ox treading grain"--DEVARIM 25:4). Surely it is not for shevarim (oxen) that Hashem is concerned. [Devarim 25:4; 22:1-4; Mishle 12:10]

9:10  Or does he not speak altogether for our sake, and for us that Hashem says this? Yes, for us, because it was written that the one plowing ought to plow on in tikvah, and the one threshing ought to partake with tikvah. [Mishle 11:25]

9:11  If we sowed spiritual things to you, is it too much if we reap in material things from you? [Rom.15:27]

9:12  If others over you can claim this privilege, can we not even more? But we did not make use of this privilege; we endure all things, lest any hindrance we should give to the Besuras HaGeulah of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach.

9:13  Do you not have da'as that the kohanim serving in the Beis Hamikdash sherut (service in the Temple) eat the things of the Beis Hamikdash; the kohanim attending the Mitzbe'ach (altar) have their share with the Mitzbe'ach (altar) [Vayikra 6:16-18, 26-28; 7:6, 8-10, 28-36; Bamidbar 18:8-19,31; Devarim 18:1-3]?

9:14  So also Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Adoneinu appointed the ones proclaiming the Besuras HaGeulah to get their parnasah from the Besuras HaGeulah. RAV SHA'UL IS MOICHEL (RELINQUISHING INTENTIONALLY, WAIVING) HIS RIGHT TO A GEHALT FOR BEING A MAGGID FOR MOSHIACH

9:15  But I have not used any of these privileges; I did not write these things that it might be so with me; for it is better for me rather to die than that someone deprive me of my kavod [in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach--Phil.1:21).

9:16  For if I preach the Besuras HaGeulah there is nothing for me to boast about, als (since) necessity is laid on, for Oy Li ("Woe to me!") if I do not preach the Besuras HaGeulah [Yirmeyah 20:9].

9:17  For, if I do this willingly, I have a sachar (reward); but, if unwillingly, then a ne'emanut (trusteeship), a kehunah (priesthood) for the Besuras HaGeulah (Rom.15:16 OJBC) has been entrusted to me.

9:18  What then is, my sachar (reward)? That in preaching as a maggid of the Besuras HaGeulah, I may make the Besuras HaGeulah without charging, so as not to make full use of my privilege in the Besuras HaGeulah.

9:19  For being no indentured servant to any one of the Bnei Adam, I made myself a servant [working for nothing] to kol Bnei Adam, that I might gain the more.

9:20  And I became to the Yehudim as a Yehudi, that I might gain Yehudim; to the ones under Torah, I became as under Torah (not being myself under [the epoch of] Torah) that the ones under Torah I might gain;

9:21  to the ones without Torah, as without Torah (not being under [the epoch of] Hashem's Torah but being under [the epoch of] Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach's Torah [Yeshayah 42:4], that I may gain the ones without Torah.

9:22  I became weak to the weak ones that I might gain the weak ones; I have become all things to all men, that by all means I might save some.

9:23  And all things I do because of the Besuras HaGeulah, that a fellow partaker and devekut sharer in it I may become.

9:24  Do you not have da'as that the ones running on a race course all indeed run, but, one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain the prize. RAV SHA'UL EXPLAINS HIS HAKPADA STRINGENCY

9:25  And everyone competing in the [Olympic] games in all things exercises shlitah atzmi, those ones, therefore, that they may obtain a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

9:26  Therefore, I run not as one without a fixed goal, I box as not beating the air,

9:27  But I am not sparing with my guf (body) and keep it under strict subjection, so that after I preach to others, I myself will not become declared ineligible.