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10 So here is my opinion on this matter: It is to your advantage, since you[a] made a good start last year both in your giving and your desire to give, 11 to finish what you started,[b] so that just as you wanted to do it eagerly,[c] you can also complete it according to your means.[d] 12 For if the eagerness is present, the gift itself[e] is acceptable according to whatever one has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not say this so there would be relief for others and suffering for you, but as a matter of equality. 14 At the present time, your abundance will meet their need,[f] so that one day their abundance may also meet your need, and thus there may be equality, 15 as it is written: “The one who gathered[g] much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”[h]

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Corinthians 8:10 tn Grk “who.”
  2. 2 Corinthians 8:11 tn Grk “and now also complete the doing.”
  3. 2 Corinthians 8:11 tn Grk “just as the eagerness to want [it].”
  4. 2 Corinthians 8:11 tn Grk “complete from what you have.”
  5. 2 Corinthians 8:12 tn The words “the gift itself” are not in the Greek text but are implied. Translators often supply an English phrase like “it is” (NASB) but in the context, Paul is clearly referring to the collection Titus was to oversee (2 Cor 8:4-7). Therefore there is no reason not to specify the referent (the gift) more narrowly for clarity.
  6. 2 Corinthians 8:14 tn Or “their lack.”
  7. 2 Corinthians 8:15 tn The word “gathered” is not in the Greek text, but is implied (so also for the second occurrence of the word later in the verse).
  8. 2 Corinthians 8:15 sn A quotation from Exod 16:18.

10 And I am giving an opinion in this matter, because this is profitable for you who not only began previously, a year ago, to do something, but also to want to do it. 11 So now also complete the doing of it, in order that just as you have the eagerness to want to do it, thus also you may complete it from what you have. 12 For if the eagerness is present according to what one has[a], it is acceptable not according to what one does not have[b]. 13 For this is not that for others there may be relief, and for you difficult circumstances, but as a matter of equality. 14 At the present time your abundance will be for their need, in order that their abundance may also be for your need, so that there may be equality, 15 just as it is written, “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”[c]

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Corinthians 8:12 Literally “to the degree that if he might have”
  2. 2 Corinthians 8:12 Literally “to the degree that he might not have”
  3. 2 Corinthians 8:15 A quotation from Exod 16:18