God Gives Most

9 Now it is unnecessary for me to write to you about the offering [that is to be made] for the saints [in Jerusalem]; ² for I know your eagerness [to promote this cause], and I have [proudly] boasted to the people of Macedonia about it, telling them that ^[a]Achaia has been prepared since last year [for this contribution], and your enthusiasm has inspired the majority of them [to respond]. ³ Still, I am sending the brothers [on to you], so that our pride in you may not be an empty boast in this case, and so that you may be prepared, just as I told them you would be; ⁴ otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—to say nothing of yourselves—will be humiliated for being so confident. ⁵ That is why I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go to you [before I come] and make arrangements in advance for this generous, previously promised gift of yours, so that it would be ready, not as something extorted [or wrung out of you], but as a [voluntary and] generous gift.