9
1 Do I not have cherut?* Am I not a Shliach? Have I not seen Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Adoneinu? Are you not my po'al (work) in Adoneinu? 2 If to others I am not a Shliach, surely I am to you, for you are the chotam (seal) of my shlichus,† in Hashem.
3 My apologetic to the ones cross-examining me is this: 4 Do I not have the privilege of eating and drinking? 5 Is the privilege not mine to take an achot b'Moshiach as isha in my travels for Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiachʼs avodas kodesh, just as the rest of his Shlichim do and the Achim‡ of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Adoneinu and Kefa? 6 Or is it only Bar-Nabba and I who are denied the privilege of not working at a parnasah? 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 cholov (milk) of the flock does not partake?§
8 Do I say this according to the dvar haBnei Adam? Or does not the Torah say these things? 9 For, in the Torah of Moshe* it has been written, LO TACHSOM SHOR BEDISHO (You shall not muzzle an ox treading grain).† Surely it is not for oxen that Hashem is concerned. 10 Or does he not speak altogether for our sake, and is it not for us that Hashem says this? Ken, 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. 11 If we sowed spiritual things to you, is it too much if we reap in material things from you?‡ 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 Moshiachʼs Besuras HaGeulah. 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 Mizbe'ach (altar) have their share with the Mizbe'ach (altar)? 14 So also Moshiach Adoneinu appointed the ones proclaiming the Besuras HaGeulah to get their parnasah from the Besuras HaGeulah.
15 But I have not used any of these privileges; I did not write these things that it might be so with me; for itʼs better for me rather to die than that someone deprive me of my kavod [in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Pp 1:21]. 16 For if I preach the Besuras HaGeulah there is nothing for me to boast about, als (since) necessity is laid on me, for Oy Li (Woe to me!) if I do not preach the Besuras HaGeulah.§ 17 For, if I do this willingly, I have a sachar (reward), but if unwillingly, then a ne'emanut (trusteeship), a kehunah for the Besuras HaGeulah* has been entrusted to me. 18 What then is my sachar (reward)? That in preaching as a maggid of the Besuras HaGeulah, I may make the Besuras HaGeulah free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the Besuras HaGeulah.
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 win the more. 20 And I became to the Yehudim as a Yehudi, that I might win Yehudim; to the ones under Gezetz, I became as under Gezetz — not being myself under [the epoch of] Gezetz† — that the ones under Gezetz I might win; 21 To the ones without Gezetz, as without Gezetz, though not being without the Torah of Hashem‡ but being under Moshiachʼs Torah,§ that I might win the ones without Gezetz. 22 I became weak to the weak ones that I might win the weak ones. I have become all things to kol Bnei Adam, that by all means I might save some. 23 And all things I do because of the Besuras HaGeulah that a fellow partaker and deveykus sharer in it I may become.
24 Do you not have da'as that the ones running on a race course all indeed run, but it is only one who receives the prize? So run that you may obtain the prize. 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. 26 Therefore, I run not as one without a goal that is kovua (fixed, set). I box as not beating the air. 27 But I do more than merely spar with my basar; I pommel it and keep it under strict subjection, so that after I am the maggid to others, I myself will not become declared ineligible.
* 9:1 in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach † 9:2 Ga 2:10 ‡ 9:5 See Mt 13:55 § 9:7 Dt 20:6; Prov 27:18 * 9:9 Rabbenu † 9:9 Dt 25:4 ‡ 9:11 Ro 15:27 § 9:16 Jer 20:9 * 9:17 Ro 15:16 † 9:20 Ro 8:2 ‡ 9:21 Ac 21:23 § 9:21 Ro 15:8; Isa 42:4