Ephesians 2:12

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

that you were at that time without the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • Gal 4:8 : 8 Heirs of Promise Are Not to Return to Law Formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods at all.
  • Col 1:21 : 21 Paul’s Goal in Ministry And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds,
  • 1 Thess 4:5 : 5 not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God.
  • 1 Thess 4:13 : 13 The Lord Returns for Believers Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope.
  • Eph 4:18 : 18 They are darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.
  • Acts 28:20 : 20 So for this reason I have asked to see you and speak with you, for I am bound with this chain because of the hope of Israel.”
  • John 15:5 : 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me– and I in him– bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.
  • Gen 15:18 : 18 That day the LORD made a covenant with Abram:“To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River–
  • Gen 17:7-9 : 7 I will confirm my covenant as a perpetual covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 I will give the whole land of Canaan– the land where you are now residing– to you and your descendants after you as a permanent possession. I will be their God.” 9 Then God said to Abraham,“As for you, you must keep the covenantal requirement I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.
  • Ps 89:3-9 : 3 The LORD said,“I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have made a promise on oath to David, my servant: 4 ‘I will give you an eternal dynasty and establish your throne throughout future generations.’”(Selah) 5 O LORD, the heavens praise your amazing deeds, as well as your faithfulness in the angelic assembly. 6 For who in the skies can compare to the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings, 7 a God who is honored in the great angelic assembly, and more awesome than all who surround him? 8 O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies! Who is strong like you, O LORD? Your faithfulness surrounds you. 9 You rule over the proud sea. When its waves surge, you calm them. 10 You crushed the Proud One and killed it; with your strong arm you scattered your enemies. 11 The heavens belong to you, as does the earth. You made the world and all it contains. 12 You created the north and the south. Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your name. 13 Your arm is powerful, your hand strong, your right hand victorious. 14 Equity and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loyal love and faithfulness characterize your rule. 15 How blessed are the people who worship you! O LORD, they experience your favor. 16 They rejoice in your name all day long, and are vindicated by your justice. 17 For you give them splendor and strength. By your favor we are victorious. 18 For our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel.
  • Jer 17:13 : 13 You are the one in whom Israel may find hope. All who leave you will suffer shame. Those who turn away from you will be consigned to the netherworld. For they have rejected you, the LORD, the fountain of life.
  • Ezek 37:26 : 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a perpetual covenant with them. I will establish them, increase their numbers, and place my sanctuary among them forever.
  • 1 Pet 1:3 : 3 New Birth to Joy and Holiness Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
  • Gal 3:16-17 : 16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. Scripture does not say,“and to the descendants,” referring to many, but“and to your descendant,” referring to one, who is Christ. 17 What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to invalidate the promise.
  • 1 Pet 1:21 : 21 Through him you now trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
  • 1 Pet 3:15 : 15 But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess.
  • Hos 3:4 : 4 For the Israelites must live many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred fertility pillar, without ephod or idols.
  • Luke 1:72 : 72 He has done this to show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant–
  • John 4:22 : 22 You people worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews.
  • John 10:16 : 16 I have other sheep that do not come from this sheepfold. I must bring them too, and they will listen to my voice, so that there will be one flock and one shepherd.
  • Jer 31:31-34 : 31 “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the LORD,“when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the LORD. 33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the LORD.“I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people. 34 “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the LORD.“For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”
  • Jer 33:20-26 : 20 “I, the LORD, make the following promise:‘I have made a covenant with the day and with the night that they will always come at their proper times. Only if you people could break that covenant 21 could my covenant with my servant David and my covenant with the Levites ever be broken. So David will by all means always have a descendant to occupy his throne as king and the Levites will by all means always have priests who will minister before me. 22 I will make the children who follow one another in the line of my servant David very numerous. I will also make the Levites who minister before me very numerous. I will make them all as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sands which are on the seashore.’” 23 The LORD’s message came to Jeremiah another time. 24 “You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying,‘The LORD has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. 25 But I, the LORD, make the following promise: I have made a covenant governing the coming of day and night. I have established the fixed laws governing heaven and earth. 26 Just as surely as I have done this, so surely will I never reject the descendants of Jacob. Nor will I ever refuse to choose one of my servant David’s descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, I will restore them and show mercy to them.”
  • Ezek 13:9 : 9 My hand will be against the prophets who see delusion and announce lying omens. They will not be included in the council of my people, nor be written in the registry of the house of Israel, nor enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.
  • Isa 44:6 : 6 The Absurdity of Idolatry This is what the LORD, Israel’s king, says, their protector, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies:“I am the first and I am the last, there is no God but me.
  • Isa 45:20 : 20 Gather together and come! Approach together, you refugees from the nations! Those who carry wooden idols know nothing, those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.
  • Isa 61:5 : 5 “Foreigners will take care of your sheep; foreigners will work in your fields and vineyards.
  • Jer 14:8 : 8 You have been the object of Israel’s hopes. You have saved them when they were in trouble. Why have you become like a resident foreigner in the land? Why have you become like a traveler who only stops in to spend the night?
  • Exod 24:3-9 : 3 Moses came and told the people all the LORD’s words and all the decisions. All the people answered together,“We are willing to do all the words that the LORD has said,” 4 and Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. Early in the morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and arranged twelve standing stones– according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 He sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings to the LORD. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. 7 He took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people, and they said,“We are willing to do and obey all that the LORD has spoken.” 8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people and said,“This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” 9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear like the sky itself. 11 But he did not lay a hand on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, and they ate and they drank.
  • Num 18:19 : 19 All the raised offerings of the holy things that the Israelites offer to the LORD, I have given to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual ordinance. It is a covenant of salt forever before the LORD for you and for your descendants with you.”
  • 2 Chr 15:3 : 3 For a long time Israel had no true God, or priest to instruct them, or law.
  • Ezra 4:3 : 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of Israel said to them,“You have no right to help us build the temple of our God. We will build it by ourselves for the LORD God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.”
  • Acts 3:25 : 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham,‘And in your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.’
  • Acts 14:15-16 : 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We too are men, with human natures just like you! We are proclaiming the good news to you, so that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own ways,
  • 1 Cor 8:4-6 : 4 With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that“an idol in this world is nothing,” and that“there is no God but one.” 5 If after all there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth(as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.
  • 1 Cor 10:19-20 : 19 Am I saying that idols or food sacrificed to them amount to anything? 20 No, I mean that what the pagans sacrifice is to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons.
  • Rom 1:28-32 : 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
  • Rom 9:4-5 : 4 who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever! Amen.
  • Col 1:5 : 5 Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel
  • Col 1:27 : 27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
  • 2 Thess 2:16 : 16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope,
  • 1 Tim 1:1 : 1 ¶ Salutation From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
  • Heb 6:18 : 18 so that we who have found refuge in him may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie.
  • Heb 11:34 : 34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, put foreign armies to flight,
  • Rom 9:8 : 8 This means it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants.
  • 1 John 3:3 : 3 And everyone who has this hope focused on him purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure).

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Eph 2:10-11
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    10For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them.

    11New Life Corporately Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh– who are called“uncircumcision” by the so-called“circumcision” that is performed on the body by human hands–

  • Eph 2:13
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    13But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

  • Eph 2:17-19
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    17And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near,

    18so that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

    19So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

  • Eph 2:1-5
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    1New Life Individually And although you were dead in your offenses and sins,

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    3among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest…

    4But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us,

    5even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ– by grace you are saved!–

  • 1 Pet 2:9-10
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    9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

    10You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy.

  • Col 1:21-22
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    21Paul’s Goal in Ministry And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds,

    22but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him–

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    5(which was not disclosed to people in former generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit),

    6namely, that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

  • Col 2:13
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    13And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions.

  • Eph 4:17-18
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    17Live in Holiness So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

    18They are darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

  • Col 1:27
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    27God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

  • Col 3:7
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    7You also lived your lives in this way at one time, when you used to live among them.

  • Col 2:11
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    11In him you also were circumcised– not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ.

  • Gal 4:8
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    8Heirs of Promise Are Not to Return to Law Formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods at all.

  • Eph 5:7-8
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    7Therefore do not be sharers with them,

    8for you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live like children of light–

  • 1 Cor 12:2
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    2You know that when you were pagans you were often led astray by speechless idols, however you were led.

  • Phil 2:15
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    15so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world

  • 1 Thess 4:12
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    12In this way you will live a decent life before outsiders and not be in need.

  • Eph 1:12
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    12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory.

  • Col 3:11
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    11Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.

  • Eph 1:18
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    18– since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened– so that you can know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

  • Eph 2:7-8
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    7to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

    8For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

  • Rom 8:9
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    9You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him.

  • Gal 2:15
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    15The Justification of Jews and Gentiles We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,

  • Eph 4:20
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    20But you did not learn about Christ like this,

  • 1 Cor 9:21
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    21To those free from the law I became like one free from the law(though I am not free from God’s law but under the law of Christ) to gain those free from the law.

  • Col 4:5
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    5Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunities.

  • Col 2:20
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    20If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as though you lived in the world?

  • 1 Thess 4:5
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    5not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God.

  • Eph 1:4
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    4For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

  • Titus 3:3
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    3For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.

  • Gal 3:26
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    26For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.

  • Rom 2:12
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    12For all who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

  • Rom 9:4
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    4who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.

  • Rom 11:30
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    30Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience,

  • 1 Pet 2:12
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    12and maintain good conduct among the non-Christians, so that though they now malign you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God when he appears.

  • Heb 12:14
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    14Do Not Reject God’s Warning Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness, for without it no one will see the Lord.

  • Gal 5:4
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    4You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!