2 Corinthians 2:7

so that now instead ¹  you should rather forgive and comfort him. ²  This will keep him from being overwhelmed by excessive grief to the point of despair. ³ 

Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

Now it is time to forgive him and comfort him. Otherwise he may become so discouraged that he won’t be able to recover.

Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it.

So that now, on the other hand, it is right for him to have forgiveness and comfort from you, for fear that his sorrow may be over-great.

so now instead you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him , lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow.

so that now instead ¹  you should rather forgive and comfort him. ²  This will keep him from being overwhelmed by excessive grief to the point of despair. ³ 

¹ tn Grk “so that on the other hand.”

² tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text but is supplied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted and must be supplied from the context.

³ tn Grk “comfort him, lest somehow such a person be swallowed up by excessive grief,” an idiom for a person being so overcome with grief as to despair or give up completely (L&N 25.285). In this context of excessive grief or regret for past sins, “overwhelmed” is a good translation since contemporary English idiom speaks of someone “overwhelmed by grief.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the difficulty of expressing a negative purpose/result clause in English, a new sentence was started here in the translation.