For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
For not even they who receive circumcision do themselves keep the law; but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
Because even those who undergo circumcision do not themselves keep the law; but they would have you undergo circumcision, so that they may have glory in your flesh.
For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
For even they who receive circumcision don't keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.
For not even they who receive circumcision do themselves keep the law; but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
Neither they themselves who are circumcised - They receive circumcision and profess Judaism, not from a desire to be conformed to the will of God; but Judaism was popular, and the more converts the false teachers could make; the more occasion of glorying they had, and they wished to get those Christian converts, who had been before proselytes of the gate, to receive circumcision, that they might glory in their flesh. Behold my converts! Thus they gloried, or boasted, not that the people were converted to God, hut that they were circumcised.
For neither they themselves who are circumcised - The Jewish teachers, or perhaps all Jews. It was true in general that the Jews did not wholly and entirely obey the Law of Moses, but it is probable that the apostle refers particularly here to the judaizing teachers in Galatia.
Keep the law - The Law of Moses, or the Law of God. Paul's idea is, that if they were circumcised they brought themselves under obligation to keep the whole law of God; see the note at Galatians 5:3. But they did not do it.
(1) no person perfectly observes the whole law of God.
(2) the Jewish nation as such were very far from doing it.
(3) it is probable that these persons did not pretend even to keep the whole Law of Moses.
Paul insists on it that if they were circumcised, and depended on that for salvation, they were under obligation to keep the whole law. But they did not. Probably they did not offer sacrifice, or join in any of the numerous observances of the Jewish nation, except some of the more prominent, such as circumcision. This, says Paul, is inconsistent in the highest degree; and they thus show their insincerity and hypocrisy.
That they may glory in your flesh - In having you as converts, and in persuading you to be circumcised, that they may show their zeal for the Law, and thus escape persecution. The phrase "in your flesh" here, is equivalent to "in your circumcision;" making use of your circumcision to promote their own importance, and to save themselves from persecution.
6:13 For neither they themselves keep the whole law - So far are they from a real zeal for it. But yet they desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh - That they may boast of you as their proselytes, and make a merit of this with the other Jews.