2 Corinthians 9
The full text of 2 Corinthians 9 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the Lord's people.
2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action.
3 But I am sending the brothers 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.
4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to say anything about you, would be ashamed of having been so confident.
5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers 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, not as one grudgingly given.
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
9 As it is written: 'They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.'
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.
14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you.
15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Translation notes (5)
- 2 Corinthians 9:7a The Greek adjective hilaros (ἱλαρός), 'cheerful', from which English derives 'hilarious', occurs only here in the New Testament and denotes glad, willing readiness rather than mere consent. The phrase echoes the Septuagint of Proverbs 22:8, which reads that God blesses 'a cheerful man and a giver', a line absent from the Masoretic Text.
- 2 Corinthians 9:9a Paul quotes Psalm 112:9, which follows the Septuagint wording closely, where the psalm describes the generous person who fears the Lord. The verb eskorpisen (ἐσκόρπισεν), 'scattered', evokes a sower broadcasting seed, an image Paul develops in the next verse. In Jewish usage, dikaiosyne, 'righteousness', could denote almsgiving itself, so the enduring righteousness is the lasting fruit of generosity.
- 2 Corinthians 9:10a Paul weaves together two prophetic texts: the phrase 'seed to the sower and bread for food' echoes the Septuagint of Isaiah 55:10, while 'the harvest of your righteousness' recalls Hosea 10:12. The Greek verb epichorēgeō, 'to supply', originally described a patron funding a chorus, and here conveys God's lavish provision for generous giving.
- 2 Corinthians 9:13a The service is diakonia (διακονία), 'ministry', Paul's term throughout chapters 8 and 9 for the collection he was gathering among the Gentile churches for the impoverished believers in Jerusalem. 'Generosity in sharing' translates haplotes (ἁπλότης), 'singleness' or 'liberality', joined to koinonia (κοινωνία), 'fellowship', so that the gift itself expresses communion between giver and recipient.
- 2 Corinthians 9:15a The adjective anekdiegetos (ἀνεκδιήγητος), 'indescribable', occurs nowhere else in the Greek New Testament and is unattested in earlier Greek literature, suggesting Paul may have coined it. Formed from the verb ekdiegeomai, 'to narrate fully', with a negating prefix, it means literally that the gift cannot be fully recounted or told through to the end.
About this translation
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