1 T herefore you have no excuse or defense or justification, O man, whoever you are who judges and condemns another. For in posing as judge and passing sentence on another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge are habitually practicing the very same things.

Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man -- every one who is judging -- for in that in which thou dost judge the other, thyself thou dost condemn, for the same things thou dost practise who art judging,

2 w e know that the judgment (adverse verdict, sentence) of God falls justly and in accordance with truth upon those who practice such things.

and we have known that the judgment of God is according to truth, upon those practising such things.

3 A nd do you think or imagine, O man, when you judge and condemn those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape God’s judgment and elude His sentence and adverse verdict?

And dost thou think this, O man, who art judging those who such things are practising, and art doing them, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

4 O r are you trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent ( to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)?

or the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, dost thou despise? -- not knowing that the goodness of God doth lead thee to reformation!

5 B ut by your callous stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are storing up wrath and indignation for yourself on the day of wrath and indignation, when God’s righteous judgment (just doom) will be revealed.

but, according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou dost treasure up to thyself wrath, in a day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

6 F or He will render to every man according to his works:

who shall render to each according to his works;

7 T o those who by patient persistence in well-doing '> springing from piety] seek glory and honor and '> the eternal blessedness of] immortality, He will give eternal life.

to those, indeed, who in continuance of a good work, do seek glory, and honour, and incorruptibility -- life age-during;

8 B ut for those who are self-seeking and self-willed and disobedient to the Truth but responsive to wickedness, there will be indignation and wrath.

and to those contentious, and disobedient, indeed, to the truth, and obeying the unrighteousness -- indignation and wrath,

9 t here will be tribulation and anguish and calamity and constraint for every soul of man who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile).

tribulation and distress, upon every soul of man that is working the evil, both of Jew first, and of Greek;

10 B ut glory and honor and peace shall be awarded to everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile).

and glory, and honour, and peace, to every one who is working the good, both to Jew first, and to Greek.

11 F or God shows no partiality '> undue favor or unfairness; with Him one man is not different from another].

For there is no acceptance of faces with God,

12 A ll who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged and condemned by the Law.

for as many as without law did sin, without law also shall perish, and as many as did sin in law, through law shall be judged,

13 F or it is not merely hearing the Law that makes one righteous before God, but it is the doers of the Law who will be held guiltless and acquitted and justified.

for not the hearers of the law righteous before God, but the doers of the law shall be declared righteous: --

14 W hen Gentiles who have not the Law do instinctively what the Law requires, they are a law to themselves, since they do not have the Law.

For, when nations that have not a law, by nature may do the things of the law, these not having a law -- to themselves are a law;

15 T hey show that the essential requirements of the Law are written in their hearts and are operating there, with which their consciences (sense of right and wrong) also bear witness; and their decisions (their arguments of reason, their condemning or approving thoughts) will accuse or perhaps defend and excuse

who do shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also witnessing with them, and between one another the thoughts accusing or else defending,

16 O n that day when, as my Gospel proclaims, God by Jesus Christ will judge men in regard to the things which they conceal (their hidden thoughts).

in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my good news, through Jesus Christ.

17 B ut if you bear the name of Jew and rely upon the Law and pride yourselves in God and your relationship to Him,

Lo, thou art named a Jew, and dost rest upon the law, and dost boast in God,

18 A nd know and understand His will and discerningly approve the better things and have a sense of what is vital, because you are instructed by the Law;

and dost know the will, and dost approve the distinctions, being instructed out of the law,

19 A nd if you are confident that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, and [that

and hast confidence that thou thyself art a leader of blind ones, a light of those in darkness,

20 Y ou are] a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the childish, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

an instructor of foolish ones, a teacher of babes, having the form of the knowledge and of the truth in the law.

21 W ell then, you who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you teach against stealing, do you steal (take what does not really belong to you)?

Thou, then, who art teaching another, thyself dost thou not teach?

22 Y ou who say not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery ? You who abhor and loathe idols, do you rob temples '> doing sacrilege]?

thou who art preaching not to steal, dost thou steal? thou who art saying not to commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou who art abhorring the idols, dost thou rob temples?

23 Y ou who boast in the Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law ?

thou who in the law dost boast, through the transgression of the law God dost thou dishonour?

24 F or, as it is written, The name of God is maligned and blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you!

for the name of God because of you is evil spoken of among the nations, according as it hath been written.

25 C ircumcision does indeed profit if you keep the Law; but if you habitually transgress the Law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision.

For circumcision, indeed, doth profit, if law thou mayest practise, but if a transgressor of law thou mayest be, thy circumcision hath become uncircumcision.

26 S o if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be credited to him as circumcision?

If, therefore the uncircumcision the righteousness of the law may keep, shall not his uncircumcision for circumcision be reckoned?

27 T hen those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the Law will condemn you who, although you have the code in writing and have circumcision, break the Law.

and the uncircumcision, by nature, fulfilling the law, shall judge thee who, through letter and circumcision, a transgressor of law.

28 F or he is not a Jew who is only one outwardly and publicly, nor is circumcision something external and physical.

For he is not a Jew who is outwardly, neither circumcision that which is outward in flesh;

29 B ut he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, a spiritual and not a literal. His praise is not from men but from God.

but a Jew he who is inwardly, and circumcision of the heart, in spirit, not in letter, of which the praise is not of men, but of God.