OrthJBC - II Corinthians - 3

3:1  Do we begin again to commend ourselves? [II Cor. 5:12] Or surely we do not need, as some do, commendatory iggrot to you or from you? [Acts 18:27; Rom 16:1]

3:2  You are our iggeret, written on our levavot, being known and being read by kol beni Adam. [I Cor. 9:2]

3:3  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] THE BRIT CHADASHA AND ITS AVODAS KODESH; WHEN MOSHE RABBEINU WENT IN BEFORE THE L-RD, MOSHE TOOK THE VEIL OFF; IN THE SAME WAY, WHOEVER TURNS TO THE L-RD, HAS THE VEIL TAKEN AWAY

3:4  Such is the bittachon that we have through Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach toward Hashem.

3:5  Not that we are competent from ourselves to claim anything as of ourselves, but our competence is from Hashem, [II Cor 2:16]

3:6  who also made us competent as klei kodesh mesharetim (ministers) of a Brit Chadasha [Shemot 24:8; Yirmeyah 31:31; 32:40; I Cor 11:25; Heb 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). [Joh. 6:63; Rom 7:6].

3:7  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]

3:8  then how much more will the avodas kodesh ministry of the Ruach Hakodesh come in kavod (glory)?

3:9  For if there was kavod in the sherut of haresha'ah (condemnation) [Devarim 27:26] how much more abounds in kavod the sherut of Tzedek. [DANIEL 9:25; Rom. 1:17;3:21]

3:10  For indeed what once had kavod has lost its kavod [Shemot 34:29-30] on account of the surpassing kavod (glory).

3:11  For if the thing, which now is fading away, came with kavod (glory), much more has that which remains come in kavod.

3:12  Since, then, we have such a tikvah (hope), we act with much oz.

3:13  And we are not as Moshe Rabbeinu, who was putting HAMMASVEH AL PANAV ("the veil over his face" SHEMOT 34:33,35) to keep the bnei Yisroel from gazing at the end of the thing fading away.

3:14  But their minds were hardened; [Rom. 11:25] for until the present day the same veil remains at the keri'atha Torah (the reading of Torah in shul), not being unveiled, because the veil is being abolished in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach.

3:15  For until today, whenever Moshe Rabbeinu is being read, a veil lies on their levavot.

3:16  But whenever one turns to Adoneinu HAMMASVEH is taken away. [Shemot 34:34; Yeshayah 25:7; Rom. 11:23-26]

3:17  Now Adoneinu is Ha Ruach and where Ha Ruach Adoneinu is, there is cherut (freedom). [Yeshayah 61:1,2; Joh 7:39; 8:32,36; Rom 8:2; Gal. 5:1,13]

3:18  Now all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the kavod of Adoneinu [Shemot 16:7; 24:17] reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same demut from kavod (glory) to kavod, even as from Adoneinu, Ha Ruach. THE AVODAS KODESH AND ITS FREELY GIVEN TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS