There is no need(A) for me to write to you about this service(B) to the Lord’s people.(C) For I know your eagerness to help,(D) and I have been boasting(E) about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year(F) you in Achaia(G) were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. But I am sending the brothers(H) in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be.(I) For if any Macedonians(J) come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers(K) to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift,(L) not as one grudgingly given.(M)

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Preparing the Gift

For it is not necessary[a] for me to write you about this service[b] to the saints, because I know your eagerness to help.[c] I keep boasting to the Macedonians about this eagerness of yours,[d] that Achaia has been ready to give[e] since last year, and your zeal to participate[f] has stirred up most of them.[g] But I am sending[h] these brothers so that our boasting about you may not be empty in this case, so that you may be ready[i] just as I kept telling them. For if any of the Macedonians should come with me and find that you are not ready to give, we would be humiliated[j] (not to mention you) by this confidence we had in you.[k] Therefore I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go to you in advance and to arrange ahead of time the generous contribution[l] you had promised, so this may be ready as a generous gift[m] and not as something you feel forced to do.[n]

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Corinthians 9:1 tn Or “it is superfluous.”
  2. 2 Corinthians 9:1 tn Or “this ministry,” “this contribution.”
  3. 2 Corinthians 9:2 tn The words “to help” are not in the Greek text but are implied.
  4. 2 Corinthians 9:2 tn Grk “concerning which I keep boasting to the Macedonians about you.” A new sentence was started here and the translation was simplified by removing the relative clause and repeating the antecedent “this eagerness of yours.”
  5. 2 Corinthians 9:2 tn The words “to give” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.
  6. 2 Corinthians 9:2 tn The words “to participate” are not in the Greek text but are implied.
  7. 2 Corinthians 9:2 sn Most of them is a reference to the Macedonians (cf. v. 4).
  8. 2 Corinthians 9:3 tn This verb has been translated as an epistolary aorist.
  9. 2 Corinthians 9:3 tn That is, ready with the collection for the saints.
  10. 2 Corinthians 9:4 tn Or “be disgraced”; Grk “be put to shame.”
  11. 2 Corinthians 9:4 tn Grk “by this confidence”; the words “we had in you” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied as a necessary clarification for the English reader.
  12. 2 Corinthians 9:5 tn Grk “the blessing.”
  13. 2 Corinthians 9:5 tn Grk “a blessing.”
  14. 2 Corinthians 9:5 tn Grk “as a covetousness”; that is, a gift given grudgingly or under compulsion.