¹⁰ Then you shall keep ^(A)the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with ^(B)the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give ^(C)as the Lord your God blesses you.

² On ^(A)the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, ^(B)as he may prosper, ^(C)so that there will be no collecting when I come.

⁵ So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the ^(A)gift^[a] you have promised, so that it may be ready ^(B)as a willing gift, ^(C)not as an exaction.^[b]

The Cheerful Giver

⁶ The point is this: ^(D)whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully^[c] will also reap bountifully. ⁷ Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, ^(E)not reluctantly or under compulsion, for ^(F)God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And ^(G)God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency^[d] in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written,

¹⁰ He who supplies ^(I)seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and ^(J)increase the harvest of your righteousness. ^11 (K)You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which ^(L)through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

¹² For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable ^(A)according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.

¹⁰ And in this matter ^(A)I give my judgment: ^(B)this benefits you, who ^(C)a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it.

^10 (A)Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby ^(B)put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open ^(C)the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. ¹¹ I will rebuke ^(D)the devourer^[a] for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.

¹⁵ Now then, ^(A)consider from this day onward.^[a] Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, ¹⁶ how did you fare? ^(B)When^[b] one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. ^17 (C)I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, ^(D)yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. ^18 (E)Consider from this day onward, ^(F)from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since ^(G)the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, ^(H)consider: ^19 (I)Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on ^(J)I will bless you.”