2 Corinthians 9

¹Now about the service to the holy ones, it is superfluous for me to write to you, ²for I know your readiness, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia has been prepared since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. ³But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you would not be emptied in this respect, so that you would be prepared, as I kept saying you were; ⁴otherwise, if Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say you—would be put to shame in this confidence. ⁵So I considered it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance the bountiful gift you promised before, so that it would be ready as a bountiful gift and not as something exacted.

⁶Now this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷Each one should give as he has decided in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that in everything, always, having all sufficiency, you may overflow in every good deed. ⁹As it is written, “He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor; his righteousness remains forever.” ¹⁰Now the one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be enriched in everything for all generosity, which produces through us thanksgiving to God— ¹²because the carrying out of this service is not only supplying the needs of the holy ones but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. ¹³Through the proof provided by this service they glorify God for the submission shown by your confession of the good news of Christ and for the generosity of your sharing with them and with all, ¹⁴and in their prayer for you they long for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. ¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

Translation notes 10

9:2 — “Most of them.” The Greek “the more” can mean the majority or a large number of the Macedonians.

9:3 — “I am sending.” A past tense in Greek, written from the standpoint of the readers who receive the letter with the brothers.

9:4 — “Not to say you”; “confidence.” The Greek base has the plural “we say”; the Nestle-Aland text has “I say.” The final noun can mean confidence, assurance, or an undertaking; the Byzantine text adds “of boasting.”

9:5 — “Bountiful gift”; “something exacted.” The word rendered “bountiful gift” is the ordinary word for “blessing,” used of a generous gift; verse 6 repeats it in the phrase rendered “bountifully,” literally “on the basis of blessings.” The contrasting word is “greed,” describing a gift wrung out of unwilling givers.

9:7 — “Grudgingly.” Literally “out of grief,” the same word as in chapters 2 and 7, here in the sense of reluctance.

9:9 — Psalm 112:9. Quoted in the Greek Old Testament wording. “His righteousness” refers to the generous person's righteousness, as in the psalm.

9:10 — Isaiah 55:10 and Hosea 10:12. The first phrase echoes Isaiah; “the harvest of your righteousness” echoes Hosea. The Greek base reads a word for sown seed where some editions read the more general word for seed; the sense is unchanged.

9:12 — “The carrying out of this service.” The Greek joins two service words, one of which often describes public or religious service. The English keeps one.

9:13 — “The submission shown by your confession.” Literally “the submission of your confession to the good news”: the obedience that accompanies confessing the good news.

9:15 — “Indescribable gift.” Not further defined; God's grace in Christ and the generosity it produces are both in view in the chapter.