2nd Corinthians Chapter 9 verse 5 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - That they would go before unto you. The triple repetition of the word "before" shows how earnest St. Paul is in the matter. The Corinthians had promised largely; it was evident that there had been, or that there was ground for fearing that there might be, some slackness of performance. St. Paul was so unwilling to have seemed inaccurate in what, he had said about them in Macedonia that he wished to give them ample notice before the Macedonian delegates arrived. Your bounty, whereof ye had notice before; your previously promised blessing, bounty; literally, blessing. The mere word should have acted as an inducement to generosity. See the use of the word to express a generous gift in Genesis 33:11; Judges 1:15, etc. (LXX.); Ephesians 1:3. In this sense it resembles the Hebrew berachah (Joshua 15:19, etc.). As a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness; as a blessing, and not as an extortion; i.e. as a free gift of your own, and not as something which I had wrung from you, or "got out of you" (2 Corinthians 7:2; 2 Corinthians 12:17, 18). It is less likely that the word pleonexia refers to the "parsimony" of the Corinthians, as though the smallness of their gift would show their greed for large gains.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(5) Therefore I thought it necessary . . .--The brethren were to go before St. Paul, so as to get all things ready for his arrival. There were to be no hurried and unsatisfactory collections then.Your bounty, whereof ye had notice before.--Better, your bounty, announced before. He is not referring to any notice that he had given, whether in 1Corinthians 16:1-2 or elsewhere, but to the announcement that he himself had made to the churches of Macedonia. The word for "bounty" (eulogia) has, like that for "confidence" in the preceding verse, the interest of an ecclesiastical history attaching to it. Literally, it means a "blessing;" then, as in the LXX. of Genesis 23:11, Judges 1:15, it was used for the "gift," which is the outward token or accompaniment of a blessing. In liturgical language, as connected with the "cup of blessing," it was applied--(1) to the consecrated bread and wine of the Lord's Supper generally; (2) specially to those portions which were reserved to be sent to the sick and other absentees; (3) when that practice fell into disuse, to the unconsecrated remains; and (4) to gifts of bread or cake to friends or the poor, as a residuum of the old distributions at the Agapae, or Feasts of Charity.As a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness.--The bearing of the last word is not quite obvious. Probably what is meant is this:--"Let your gift be worthy of what you call it, a 'blessing' expressed in act, not the grudging gift of one who, as he gives, is intent on gaining some advantage through his seeming generosity." So understood, it expresses the same thought as Shakespeare's well-known lines:--"The quality of mercy is not strained,It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."It is possible, however, that the word "covetousness" had been applied tauntingly to St. Paul himself, as always "asking for more," always "having his hand" (as is sometimes said of active organising secretaries in our own time) "in people's pockets," and that this is his answer to that taunt. The use of the corresponding verb in 2Corinthians 7:2; 2Corinthians 12:17-18, is strongly in favour of this view. "Don't look on this business," he seems to say, "as a self-interested work of mine. Think of it as, in every sense of the word, a blessing both to givers and receivers." . . .