2 Corinthians 9:14

And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) And by their prayer for you, which long after you.—The structure of the Greek is again ungrammatical, but the following gives a somewhat more accurate representation: And while they long after you, in supplication for you, on account of the exceeding grace of God that rests on you. He seems half lost in his anticipations of what will follow when he hands over the contributions of the Gentiles to the “saints” at Jerusalem. Their utterance of praise and thanksgiving will, he is sure, be followed by a yearning prayer of intercession for their benefactors.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:6-15 Money bestowed in charity, may to the carnal mind seem thrown away, but when given from proper principles, it is seed sown, from which a valuable increase may be expected. It should be given carefully. Works of charity, like other good works, should be done with thought and design. Due thought, as to our circumstances, and those we are about to relieve, will direct our gifts for charitable uses. Help should be given freely, be it more or less; not grudgingly, but cheerfully. While some scatter, and yet increase; others withhold more than is meet, and it tends to poverty. If we had more faith and love, we should waste less on ourselves, and sow more in hope of a plentiful increase. Can a man lose by doing that with which God is pleased? He is able to make all grace abound towards us, and to abound in us; to give a large increase of spiritual and of temporal good things. He can make us to have enough in all things; and to be content with what we have. God gives not only enough for ourselves, but that also wherewith we may supply the wants of others, and this should be as seed to be sown. We must show the reality of our subjection to the gospel, by works of charity. This will be for the credit of our profession, and to the praise and glory of God. Let us endeavour to copy the example of Christ, being unwearied in doing good, and deeming it more blessed to give than to receive. Blessed be God for the unspeakable gift of his grace, whereby he enables and inclines some of his people to bestow upon others, and others to be grateful for it; and blessed be his glorious name to all eternity, for Jesus Christ, that inestimable gift of his love, through whom this and every other good thing, pertaining to life and godliness, are freely given unto us, beyond all expression, measure, or bounds.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And by their prayer for you - On the grammatical construction of this difficult verse, Doddridge and Bloomfield may be consulted. It is probably to be taken in connection with 2 Corinthians 9:12, and 2 Corinthians 9:13 is a parenthesis. Thus interpreted, the sense will be, "The administration of this service 2 Corinthians 9:12 will produce abundant thanks to God. It will also 2 Corinthians 9:14 produce another effect. It will tend to excite the prayers of the saints for you, and thus produce important benefits to yourselves. They will earnestly desire your welfare, they will anxiously pray to be united in Christian friendship with those who have been so signally endowed with the grace of God." The sentiment is, that charity should be shown to poor and afflicted Christians because it will lead them to pray for us and to desire our welfare. The prayers of the poorest Christian for us are worth more than all we usually bestow on them in charity; and he who has secured the pleadings of a child of God, however humble, in his behalf, has made a good use of his money.

Which long after you - Who earnestly desire to see and know you. Who will sincerely desire your welfare, and who will thus be led to pray for you.

For the exceeding grace of God in you - On account of the favor which God has shown to you: the strength and power of the Christian principle, manifesting itself in doing good to those whom you have never seen. The apostle supposes that the exercise of a charitable disposition is to be traced entirely to God. God is the author of all grace; he alone excites in us a disposition to do good to others.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. Translate, "Themselves also with prayer for you, longing after you on account of the exceeding grace of God (resting) upon you." English Version is, however, good sense: They glorify God (2Co 9:13) by the experimental proof, &c., "and by their prayer for you." But the Greek favors the former.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Another way by which the glory of God will be promoted, by your simple, free, and liberal contribution, is, that by this he will have more prayers, which also will redound to your advantage, for it will procure prayers for you; and not prayers only, but a great deal of fervent love; so as they will long after your good, and after your acquaintance, when they shall receive such an experiment of

the exceeding grace of God in you.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And by their prayer for you,.... The sense is, they glorify God on your behalf, making mention of you in all their prayers at the throne of grace, giving thanks to God for your liberality to them, and imploring all the blessings both of the upper and nether springs upon you; and this contains another argument engaging the Corinthians to liberality, taken from the prayers of the saints for them: or the words may be connected with 2 Corinthians 9:12 the thirteenth verse being in a parenthesis; and show not only that this ministering to the poor saints relieved their wants, and caused thanksgivings to God, but abounded in this fruit also; it put them upon daily and importunate supplications to God for their welfare both in soul and body.

Which long after you; or "earnestly desire you"; that is, "to see you", as the Ethiopic version adds; or exceedingly love you: their affections are wonderfully drawn out to you; not so much, or barely for your kindness to them, as

for the exceeding grace of God in you; for that large measure of it which was bestowed upon them in regeneration, as their unfeigned faith, lively hope, and sincere love; and for all that grace which was displayed in their justification, adoption, sanctification, and whole salvation.

Geneva Study Bible

And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

2 Corinthians 9:14. Καὶ αὐτῶν δεήσει ὑπὲρ ὑμ.] does not go with περισσεύουσα 2 Corinthians 9:12, so that 2 Corinthians 9:13 would be a parenthesis (Beza, Estius, Rosenmüller, Flatt, Olshausen, de Wette), because in that case Paul would have written very enigmatically, and must at least have continued with διά instead of with the dative. Nor yet does it go with δοξάζοντες, in which case the dative is either made to depend on ἐπί (Luther, Castalio, Bengel), or is taken instrumentally (Emmerling, Billroth, Osiander, Neander; Rückert does not decide), for in the former case there would result an idea strange and destitute of all analogy from the N. T. (Bengel wrongly appeals to 2 Timothy 1:3); in the latter, καί would be superfluous, and the prefixing of the αὐτῶν would remain entirely unregarded. We must rather take καὶ αὐτῶν … ἐπιποθούντων together as genitive absolute (comp. the punctuation in Lachmann and Teschendorf, also Ewald and Hofmann), and καὶ αὐτοί means they too, by which is meant to be indicated the fact that, and the mode in which, on their side also the ἁπλότης τῆς κοινωνίας, which the Corinthians have shown, is returned. Thus: while they too with prayer for you long after you. The emergence of the genitive absolute without difference of the subject is a phenomenon also frequent in classical authors. See Poppo, ad Thucyd. I. p. 119 f.; Richter, de anacol. § 16; Matthiae, p. 1306; Bornemann, ad Acts 13:6.

δεήσει is not instrumental, but an accompanying accessory definition of the mode: with prayer, amid prayer for you.[296] Comp. Bernhardy, p. 100 f.

Regarding ἐπιποθεῖν, see on 2 Corinthians 5:2. It is the longing of pious, grateful love for personal fellowship with the brethren far distant. It is a sheer fancy that it means maximo amore complecti (Beza and many others, even Billroth).

διὰ τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν κ.τ.λ.] reason of this pious longing: because the grace of God is abundant towards you. How far this was shown in the present instance, see 2 Corinthians 9:13. Chrysostom well says: ἐπιποθοῦσι γὰρ τοῦτο οὐ διὰ τὰ χρήματα, ἀλλʼ ὥστε θεαταὶ γενέσθαι τῆς δεδομένης ὑμῖν χάριτος. Even in this Δ. Τ. ὙΠΕΡΒΆΛΛ. ΧΆΡΙΝ, Hofmann finds the contrast between the Israelitic Christians and the Gentile Christians, who before had lived beyond the pale of the church of God, and without God in the world. If Paul had meant this relation, he would have expressed it (comp. Ephesians 2:12).

ἐφʼ ὑμῖν belongs to ὙΠΕΡΒΆΛΛ. Comp. Kühner, ad Xen. Anab. iv. 2. 18. ἐπί denotes the object, to which the activity has passed o2Co 9:Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 290 [E. T. 337].

[296] It is the Christian intercession of thankfulness for the benefactors, for whom the praying heart yearns. Hofmann goes beyond the text when he imports into this prayer the definite contents: that God would keep the Achaean Christians till the time, when Jesus shall bring together the scattered children of God with those of the Holy Land and people. Matthew 24:31 treats of the Parousia, and is not at all relevant here.

Expositor's Greek Testament

2 Corinthians 9:14. καὶ αὐτῶν δεήσει κ.τ.λ. This is again an independent sentence, beginning with a gen. abs.: while they also, with supplication on your behalf, long after you (sc., apparently, long to see you) by reason of the exceeding grace of God upon you: i.e., you have the prayers of those whom you are helping, who feel the yearnings of affection for their benefactors in whom the working of God’s grace has been so signally displayed.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. and by their prayer for you, which long after you] The construction in the Greek is somewhat obscure. Some would render (1) as A. V., and regard this verse also as depending upon the word glorify. Others suppose (2) that St Paul has abruptly changed the construction, and would render they themselves, with prayer, earnestly longing to see you. If we accept (1), which also involves a change in the construction of the sentence, the sense is that the prayer of the Jewish Christians and their affection for the Corinthians redounded to the glory of God. If (2), it simply means that the result of the Corinthian bounty would be to draw out a corresponding fervency of affection on the part of the Church at Jerusalem. It is worthy of remark that the Apostle, in his vivid anticipation of the future, regards it as already present.

Bengel's Gnomen

2 Corinthians 9:14. Δεήσει, on account of their prayer) [But Engl. Vers., “by their prayer for you.”] Construe, glorifying [δοξάζοντες, 2 Corinthians 9:13] for their prayer; for we give thanks even for the prayers which have been given to us [which God has enabled us to offer], 2 Timothy 1:3 [I thank God, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers].—ἐπιποθούντων, greatly desiring) construe with αὐτῶν, of them.—διὰ, on account of, for) construe with thanksgivings [εὐχαριστιῶν, 2 Corinthians 9:12].—ἐφʼ ὑμῖν) which rests upon you, in such a degree as that it redounds to their advantage.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - And by their prayer for you. These words are joined by our Authorized Version with "glorifying God." The saints at Jerusalem would, in consequence of the proved sincerity of the Corinthians, glorify God with thanksgiving for their faithfulness and kindness, by prayer for them. The Revisers take the clause with the following participle, "while they themselves also, with supplication on your behalf, long after you by reason of the exceeding grace of God in you." This is the only right view of the construction. Long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you; literally, yearn for you because of the grace of God which overabounds to you. 2 Corinthians 9:14