Discovery Box1 Thessalonians 2:18 
Context2:18 For we wanted to come to you (I, Paul, in fact tried again and again) 1 but Satan thwarted us.
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10
Context5:9 For God did not destine us for wrath 2 but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 5:10 He died 3 for us so that whether we are alert or asleep 4 we will come to life together with him.
1 tn Or “several times”; Grk, “both once and twice.” The literal expression “once and twice” is frequently used as a Greek idiom referring to an indefinite low number, but more than once (“several times”); see L&N 60.70.
2 sn God did not destine us for wrath. In context this refers to the outpouring of God’s wrath on the earth in the day of the Lord (1 Thess 5:2-4).
3 tn Grk “the one who died,” describing Jesus Christ (1 Thess 5:9). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 10 in the translation.
4 sn The phrases alert or asleep may be understood (1) of moral alertness (living in faith, love, and hope as vv. 6, 8 call for, versus being unresponsive to God) or (2) of physical life and death (whether alive or dead). The first fits better with the context of 5:1-9, while the second returns to the point Paul started with in 4:13-18 (no disadvantage for the believing dead).
