2 Corinthians 1

Modern

Literal

Paul Greets the Corinthians

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy the brother, To the church of God being in Corinth, with all the saints being in all Achaia:

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

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

The God of All Comfort

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassions and God of all comfort,

⁴who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

⁴the One comforting us in all our tribulation, for us to be able to comfort those in every tribulation through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God,

⁵For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

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

⁶If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which accomplishes in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we experience.

⁶But if we are hard pressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, operating in the endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer.

⁷And our hope for you is sure, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you will share in our comfort.

⁷And our hope for you is sure, knowing that as you are fellow partakers of the sufferings, so also of the comfort.

⁸We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia.^a We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

⁸For we do not want you to be ignorant brothers, as to our tribulation having happened in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so as for us to despair even to live.

⁹Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.

⁹But we have had in ourselves the sentence of death, so that we should not be trusting in ourselves, but in God, the One raising the dead,

¹⁰He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. In Him we have placed our hope that He will yet again deliver us,

¹⁰who delivered us from so great a death and will deliver us, in whom we have hoped that also He will deliver us still,

¹¹as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the favor shown us in answer to their prayers.

¹¹in your also together helping us by supplication, so that thanks may be given for us by many faces for the gracious gift to us through many.

Paul’s Change of Plans

¹²For this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God—not in worldly^a wisdom, but in the grace of God.

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

¹³For we do not write you anything that is beyond your ability to read and understand. And I hope that you will understand us completely,

¹³For we write no other things to you but what you read or also understand. And I hope that you will understand to the end,

¹⁴as you have already understood us in part, that you may boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of our Lord Jesus.^a

¹⁴as also you understood us in part, so that we are your boast, even as you are also ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.

¹⁵Confident of this, I planned to visit you first, so that you might receive a double blessing.

¹⁵And with this confidence I was purposing to come to you before, so that you might have a second grace,

¹⁶I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to return to you from Macedonia, and then to have you help me on my way to Judea.

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

¹⁷When I planned this, did I do it carelessly? Or do I make my plans by human standards, so as to say “Yes, yes” and also “No, no”?

¹⁷Therefore, purposing this, then, did I use lightness? Or do I purpose what I purpose according to flesh, so that with me it may be “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?

¹⁸But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.”

¹⁸But faithful is God, that our word to you is not “Yes” and “No.”

¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you by me and Silvanus^a and Timothy, was not “Yes” and “No,” but in Him it has always been “Yes.”

¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, having been proclaimed among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but it has been “Yes” in Him.

²⁰For all the promises of God are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him, our “Amen” is spoken to the glory of God.

²⁰For as many as are the promises of God, in Him is the “Yes.” Therefore also through Him the “Amen” through us is for glory to God.

²¹Now it is God who establishes both us and you in Christ. He anointed us,

²¹Now the One establishing us with you into Christ, and having anointed us, is God,

²²placed His seal on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of what is to come.

²²the One also having sealed us and having given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.

²³I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.

²³But I call God as witness upon my soul, that sparing you I did not yet come to Corinth.

²⁴Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are fellow workers with you for your joy, because it is by faith that you stand firm.

²⁴Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are fellow workers with you of joy; for in the faith you stand firm.