2 Corinthians 1

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and Timotheus the brother, to the Assembly of God that is in Corinth, with all the holy ones who are in all Achaia:

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God--and our brother Timothy: To the Church of God in Corinth, with all God's people throughout Greece.

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed [is] God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort,

Heartfelt thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ--the Father who is full of compassion and the God who gives all comfort.

4 who is comforting us in all our tribulation, for our being able to comfort those in any tribulation through the comfort with which we are comforted ourselves by God;

He comforts us in our every affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction by means of the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

5 because, as the sufferings of the Christ abound to us, so through the Christ our comfort also abounds;

For just as we have more than our share of suffering for the Christ, so also through the Christ we have more than our share of comfort.

6 and whether we be in tribulation, [it is] for your comfort and salvation, that is worked in the enduring of the same sufferings that we also suffer; whether we are comforted, [it is] for your comfort and salvation;

But if, on the one hand, we are enduring affliction, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if, on the other hand, we are receiving comfort, it is for your comfort which is produced within you through your patient fortitude under the same sufferings as those which we also are enduring.

7 and our hope [is] steadfast for you, knowing that even as you are partakers of the sufferings—so also of the comfort.

And our hope for you is stedfast; for we know that as you are partners with us in the sufferings, so you are also partners in the comfort.

8 For we do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, of our tribulation that happened to us in Asia, that we were exceedingly burdened above [our] power, so that we even despaired of life;

For as for our troubles which came upon us in the province of Asia, we would have you know, brethren, that we were exceedingly weighed down, and felt overwhelmed, so that we renounced all hope even of life.

9 but we ourselves have had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we may not be trusting on ourselves, but on God, who is raising the dead,

Nay, we had, as we still have, the sentence of death within our own selves, in order that our confidence may repose, not on ourselves, but on God who raised the dead to life.

10 who delivered us out of so great a death, and delivers, in whom we have hoped that even yet He will deliver;

He it is who rescued us from so imminent a death, and will do so again; and we have a firm hope in Him that He will also rescue us in all the future,

11 you also working together for us by your supplication, that the gift through many persons to us, through many, may be thankfully acknowledged for us.

while you on your part lend us your aid in entreaty for us, so that from many lips thanksgivings may rise on our behalf for the boon granted to us at the intercession of many.

12 For our glorying is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you;

For the reason for our boasting is this--the testimony of our own conscience that it was in holiness and with pure motives before God, and in reliance not on worldly wisdom but on the gracious help of God, that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and above all in our relations with you.

13 for no other things do we write to you, but what you either read or also acknowledge, and I hope that you will also acknowledge to the end,

For we are writing to you nothing different from what we have written before, or from what indeed you already recognize as truth and will, I trust, recognize as such to the very end;

14 according as you also acknowledged us in part, that we are your glory, even as also you [are] ours, in the Day of the Lord Jesus;

just as some few of you have recognized us as your reason for boasting, even as you will be ours, on the day of Jesus our Lord.

15 and in this confidence I was intending to come to you before, that you might have a second favor,

It was because I entertained this confidence that I intended to visit you before going elsewhere--so that you might receive a twofold proof of God's favour--

16 and to pass to Macedonia through you, and to come to you again from Macedonia, and to be sent forward by you to Judea.

and to pass by way of Corinth into Macedonia. Then my plan was to return from Macedonia to you, and be helped forward by you to Judaea.

17 This, therefore, intending, did I then use the lightness; or the things that I counsel, [did] I counsel according to the flesh, that it may be with me Yes, yes, and No, no?

Did I display any vacillation or caprice in this? Or the purposes which I form--do I form them on worldly principles, now crying "Yes, yes," and now "No, no"?

18 And God [is] faithful, that our word to you did not become Yes and No,

As certainly as God is faithful, our language to you is not now "Yes" and now "No."

19 for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, having been preached through us among you—through me and Silvanus and Timotheus—did not become Yes and No, but in Him it has become Yes;

For Jesus Christ the Son of God--He who was proclaimed among you by us, that is by Silas and Timothy and myself--did not show Himself a waverer between "Yes" and "No." But it was and always is "Yes" with Him.

20 for as many as [are] promises of God, in Him [are] the Yes, and in Him the Amen, for glory to God through us;

For all the promises of God, whatever their number, have their confirmation in Him; and for this reason through Him also our "Amen" acknowledges their truth and promotes the glory of God through our faith.

21 and He who is confirming you with us into Christ, and anointed us, [is] God,

But He who is making us as well as you stedfast through union with the Anointed One, and has anointed us, is God,

22 who also sealed us, and gave the deposit of the Spirit in our hearts.

and He has also set His seal upon us, and has put His Spirit into our hearts as a pledge and foretaste of future blessing.

23 And I call on God for a witness on my soul, that sparing you, I did not come to Corinth yet;

But as for me, as my soul shall answer for it, I appeal to God as my witness, that it was to spare you pain that I gave up my visit to Corinth.

24 not that we are lords over your faith, but we are workers together with your joy, for by faith you stand.

Not that we want to lord it over you in respect of your faith--we do, however, desire to help your joy--for in the matter of your faith you are standing firm.