2 Corinthians 7:4-9

A Letter That Caused Sadness

7:4 I have great confidence in you; I take great pride¹ on your behalf. I am filled with encouragement;² I am overflowing with joy in the midst of³ all our suffering. 7:5 For even when we came into Macedonia, our body⁴ had no rest at all, but we were troubled in every way – struggles from the outside, fears from within. 7:6 But God, who encourages⁵ the downhearted, encouraged⁶ us by the arrival of Titus. 7:7 We were encouraged⁷ not only by his arrival, but also by the encouragement⁸ you gave⁹ him, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning,¹⁰ your deep concern¹¹ for me, so that I rejoiced more than ever. 7:8 For even if I made you sad¹² by my letter,¹³ I do not regret having written it¹⁴ (even though I did regret it,¹⁵ for¹⁶ I see that my letter made you sad,¹⁷ though only for a short time). 7:9 Now I rejoice, not because you were made sad,¹⁸ but because you were made sad to the point of repentance. For you were made sad as God intended,¹⁹ so that you were not harmed²⁰ in any way by us.

¹tn Grk “great is my boasting.”

²tn Or “comfort.”

³tn Grk “I am overflowing with joy in all our suffering”; the words “in the midst of” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to clarify that Paul is not rejoicing in the suffering itself, but in his relationship with the Corinthians in the midst of all his suffering.

⁴tn Grk “our flesh.”

⁵tn Or “comforts,” “consoles.”

⁶tn Or “comforted,” “consoled.”

⁷tn Because of the length and complexity of this Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the phrase “We were encouraged.”

⁸tn Or “comfort,” “consolation.”

⁹tn Grk “by the encouragement with which he was encouraged by you.” The passive construction was translated as an active one in keeping with contemporary English style, and the repeated word “encouraged” was replaced in the translation by “gave” to avoid redundancy in the translation.

¹⁰tn Or “your grieving,” “your deep sorrow.”

¹¹tn Or “your zeal.”

¹²tn Grk “if I grieved you.”

¹³sn My letter. Paul is referring to the “severe” letter mentioned in 2 Cor 2:4.

¹⁴tn Grk “I do not regret”; direct objects in Greek must often be supplied from the context. Here one could simply supply “it,” but since Paul is referring to the effects of his previous letter, clarity is improved if “having written it” is supplied.

¹⁵tn Grk “I did regret”; the direct object “it” must be supplied from the context.

¹⁶tc A few important mss (Ì^46c B D* it sa) lack γάρ (gar, “for”), while the majority of witnesses have it (א C D¹ F G Ψ 0243 33 1739 1881 Ï sy bo). Even though Ì^46* omits γάρ, it has the same sense (viz., a subordinate clause) because it reads the participle βλέπων (blepwn, “seeing”; the Vulgate does the same). A decision is difficult because although the overwhelming external evidence is on the side of the conjunction, the lack of γάρ is a significantly harder reading, for the whole clause is something of an anacoluthon. Without the conjunction, the sentence reads more harshly. This would fit with Paul’s “vehemence of spirit” (A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament, 435) that is found especially in 2 Corinthians and Galatians. However, the mss that omit the conjunction are prone to such tendencies at times. In this instance, the conjunction should probably stand.

¹⁷tn Grk “my letter grieved you.”

¹⁸tn Grk “were grieved” (so also twice later in the verse).

¹⁹tn Grk “corresponding to God,” that is, corresponding to God’s will (κατὰ θεόν, kata qeon). The same phrase occurs in vv. 10 and 11.

²⁰tn Grk “so that you did not suffer loss.”