2:1  THEREFORE 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 [that you censure and denounce].

2:2  [But] we know that the judgment (adverse verdict, sentence) of God falls justly {and} in accordance with truth upon those who practice such things.

2:3  And 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?

2:4  Or are you [so blind as to] 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 [of the fact] that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God's will)?

2:5  But 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.

2:6  For He will render to every man according to his works [justly, as his deeds deserve]:

2:7  To those who by patient persistence in well-doing [springing from piety] seek [unseen but sure] glory and honor and [the eternal blessedness of] immortality, He will give eternal life.

2:8  But for those who are self-seeking {and} self-willed {and} disobedient to the Truth but responsive to wickedness, there will be indignation and wrath.

2:9  [And] there will be tribulation {and} anguish and calamity {and} constraint for every soul of man who [habitually] does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile).

2:10  But glory and honor and [heart] peace shall be awarded to everyone who [habitually] does good, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile).

2:11  For God shows no partiality [undue favor or unfairness; with Him one man is not different from another].

2:12  All who have sinned without the Law will also perish without [regard to] the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged {and} condemned by the Law.

2:13  For it is not merely hearing the Law [read] that makes one righteous before God, but it is the doers of the Law who will be held guiltless {and} acquitted {and} justified.

2:14  When Gentiles who have not the [divine] Law do instinctively what the Law requires, they are a law to themselves, since they do not have the Law.

2:15  They 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 [moral] decisions (their arguments of reason, their condemning or approving thoughts) will accuse or perhaps defend {and} excuse [them]

2:16  On 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).

2:17  But if you bear the name of Jew and rely upon the Law and pride yourselves in God {and} your relationship to Him,

2:18  And 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;

2:19  And if you are confident that you [yourself] are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, and [that

2:20  You are] a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the childish, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and truth--

2:21  Well 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)?

2:22  You who say not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery [are you unchaste in action or in thought]? You who abhor {and} loathe idols, do you rob temples [do you appropriate to your own use what is consecrated to God, thus robbing the sanctuary and doing sacrilege]?

2:23  You who boast in the Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law [by stealthily infringing upon or carelessly neglecting or openly breaking it]?

2:24  For, as it is written, The name of God is maligned {and} blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you! [The words to this effect are from your own Scriptures.]

2:25  Circumcision does indeed profit if you keep the Law; but if you habitually transgress the Law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision.

2:26  So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be credited to him as [equivalent to] circumcision?

2:27  Then 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.

2:28  For he is not a [real] Jew who is only one outwardly {and} publicly, nor is [true] circumcision something external and physical.

2:29  But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and [true] circumcision is of the heart, a spiritual and not a literal [matter]. His praise is not from men but from God.