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Nonetheless, I sent the brothers[a] so that our boast about you might not prove empty in this case, so that you might be ready, as I said, for fear that if any Macedonians come with me and find you not ready we might be put to shame (to say nothing of you) in this conviction. So I thought it necessary to encourage the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for your promised gift, so that in this way it might be ready as a bountiful gift and not as an exaction.

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Footnotes

  1. 9:3 I sent the brothers: the Greek aorist tense here could be epistolary, referring to the present; in that case Paul would be sending them now, and 2 Cor 9 would merely conclude the letter of recommendation begun in 2 Cor 8. But the aorist may also refer to a sending that is past as Paul writes; then 2 Cor 9, with its apparently fresh beginning, is a follow-up message entrusted to another carrier.

But I am sending the brothers(A) 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.(B) For if any Macedonians(C) 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(D) 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,(E) not as one grudgingly given.(F)

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