The Collection for Christians at Jerusalem

9 Now it is not necessary for me to write you about the ministry to the saints, ² for I know your eagerness, which is the subject of my boasting about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.^{(A) 3} But I am sending^[a] the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be;^{(B) 4} otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be put to shame—to say nothing of you—in this undertaking.^{[b] 5} So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a bountiful gift and not as an extortion.