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Tuesday, July 29th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

Complete Jewish Bible

Galatians 4:11

I fear for you that my work among you has been wasted!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Backsliders;   Instability;   Love;   Works;   Zeal, Religious;   Thompson Chain Reference - Backsliding;   Care;   Church;   Deterioration-Development;   Formalism;   Ministers;   Paul's;   Religion;   Religion, True-False;   The Topic Concordance - Law;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Sabbath;   World;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Lord's Day, the;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Holy Day;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Galatians, the Epistle to the;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Galatians, Letter to the;   Worship;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Adoption;   Lord's Day;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Galatians Epistle to the;   Labour (2);   New Moon;   Passover;   Paul;   Persis ;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Galatians, Epistle to the;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Sabbath and Sunday;   Saul of Tarsus;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.
King James Version (1611)
I am afraide of you, lest I haue bestowed vpon you labour in vaine.
King James Version
I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
English Standard Version
I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
New American Standard Bible
I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
New Century Version
I am afraid for you, that my work for you has been wasted.
Amplified Bible
I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored [to the point of exhaustion] over you in vain.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
Legacy Standard Bible
I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you for nothing.
Berean Standard Bible
I fear for you, that my efforts for you may have been in vain.
Contemporary English Version
I am afraid I have wasted my time working with you.
Darby Translation
I am afraid of you, lest indeed I have laboured in vain as to you.
Geneva Bible (1587)
I am in feare of you, lest I haue bestowed on you labour in vaine.
George Lamsa Translation
I am afraid that perhaps I have labored among you in vain.
Good News Translation
I am worried about you! Can it be that all my work for you has been for nothing?
Lexham English Bible
I am afraid for you, lest perhaps I have labored for you in vain!
Literal Translation
I fear for you, lest somehow I have labored among you in vain.
American Standard Version
I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.
Bible in Basic English
I am in fear of you, that I may have been working for you to no purpose.
Hebrew Names Version
I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.
International Standard Version
I am afraid for you, lest somehow my work for you has been wasted!Galatians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:5;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
I am afraid, lest vain in I have laboured among you.
Murdock Translation
I am afraid, lest I have labored among you in vain.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
I am in feare of you, lest I haue bestowed on you labour in vayne.
English Revised Version
I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labour upon you in vain.
World English Bible
I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Brethren, I beseech you, be ye as I am; for I also am as ye were: ye have not injured me at all.
Weymouth's New Testament
I am alarmed about you, and am afraid that I have perhaps bestowed labour upon you to no purpose.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
But Y drede you, lest without cause Y haue trauelid among you.
Update Bible Version
I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor on you in vain.
Webster's Bible Translation
I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.
New English Translation
I fear for you that my work for you may have been in vain.
New King James Version
I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
New Living Translation
I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing.
New Life Bible
I am afraid my work with you was wasted.
New Revised Standard
I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I am afraid of you - lest by any means, in vain, I should have toiled for you!
Douay-Rheims Bible
I am afraid of you, lest perhaps I have laboured in vain among you.
Revised Standard Version
I am afraid I have labored over you in vain.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
I am in feare of you lest I have bestowed on you laboure in vayne.
Young's Literal Translation
I am afraid of you, lest in vain I did labour toward you.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I am in feare of you, lest I haue bestowed laboure on you in vayne.
Mace New Testament (1729)
you make me apprehensive, that the labour I have bestowed upon you will be all in vain.
Simplified Cowboy Version
I feel sorry for you. Maybe all my hard work was for nothing.

Contextual Overview

8 In the past, when you did not know God, you served as slaves beings which in reality are non-gods. 9 But now you do know God, and, more than that, you are known by God. So how is it that you turn back again to those weak and miserable elemental spirits? Do you want to enslave yourselves to them once more? 10 You observe special days, months, seasons and years! 11 I fear for you that my work among you has been wasted!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

am: Galatians 4:20, 2 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Corinthians 11:3, 2 Corinthians 12:20, 2 Corinthians 12:21

lest: Galatians 2:2, Galatians 5:2-4, Isaiah 49:4, Acts 16:6, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Philippians 2:16, 1 Thessalonians 3:5, 2 John 1:8

Reciprocal: Leviticus 26:20 - your strength Psalms 127:1 - they labour 2 Corinthians 6:1 - beseech 2 Corinthians 7:5 - fears Galatians 5:10 - confidence Colossians 1:23 - ye continue 1 Thessalonians 2:1 - in vain 1 Thessalonians 5:12 - labour

Cross-References

Genesis 3:14
Adonai , God, said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all livestock and wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and eat dust as long as you live.
Genesis 4:14
You are banning me today from the land and from your presence. I will be a fugitive wandering the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."
Genesis 4:15
Adonai answered him, "Therefore, whoever kills Kayin will receive vengeance sevenfold," and Adonai put a sign on Kayin, so that no one who found him would kill him.
Genesis 4:16
So Kayin left the presence of Adonai and lived in the land of Nod [wandering], east of ‘Eden.
Genesis 4:19
(S: v) Lemekh took himself two wives; the name of the one was ‘Adah, while the name of the other was Tzilah.
Genesis 4:20
‘Adah gave birth to Yaval; he was the ancestor of those who live in tents and have cattle.
Genesis 4:21
His brother's name was Yuval; and he was the ancestor of all who play lyre and flute.
Genesis 4:26
To Shet too was born a son, whom he called Enosh. That is when people began to call on the name of Adonai .
Job 16:18
"Earth, don't cover my blood; don't let my cry rest [without being answered].
Isaiah 26:21
For see! Adonai emerges from his place to punish those on earth for their sin. Then the earth will reveal the blood shed on it and no longer conceal its slain.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I am afraid of you,.... Which shows the danger he apprehended they were in, by taking such large steps from Christianity to Judaism, and expresses the godly jealousy of the apostle over them; intimates he had some hope of them, and in the whole declares his great love and affection for them; for love is a thing full of care and fear:

lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain; in preaching the Gospel among them with so much diligence and constancy, though so many afflictions and pressures lay upon him. Faithful ministers of the word are laborious ones; and such an one was the apostle; and who indeed laboured more abundantly than the rest in all places wherever he came; and such will be concerned, as he was, lest their labours should be in vain, not to themselves, but to the souls of others, whose everlasting good and welfare they are seeking. But how is it that the apostle should fear that his labour in preaching the Gospel would be in vain, and become of no effect through their observance of days, months, times, and years? because that hereby the pure spiritual and evangelic worship of God was corrupted, they bringing into it that which God had removed, and so became guilty of will worship; their Christian liberty was infringed, and they brought into bondage, a deliverance from which the Gospel proclaims; the doctrine of free grace in pardon, justification, and salvation, was made void, they observing these things in order to procure them thereby; and it was virtually and tacitly saying, that Christ was not come in the flesh, which is the main article of the Gospel; for since these things had respect to him, and were to continue no longer than till his coming, to keep on the observation of them, was declaring that he was not come; which is in effect to set aside the whole Gospel, and the ministration of it; so that the apostle might justly fear, that by such a proceeding all his labour, and the pains he had took to preach the Gospel, and salvation by Christ unto them, would be in vain.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I am afraid of you ... - I have fears respecting you. His fears were that they had no genuine Christian principle. They had been so easily perverted and turned back to the servitude of ceremonies and rites, that he was apprehensive that there could be no real Christian principle in the case. What pastor has not often had such fears of his people, when he sees them turn to the weak and beggarly elements of the world, or when, after having “run well,” he sees them become the slaves of fashion, or of some habit inconsistent with the simplicity of the gospel?

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 11. I am afraid of you — I begin now to be seriously alarmed for you, and think you are so thoroughly perverted from the Gospel of Christ, that all my pains and labour in your conversion have been thrown away.


 
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