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Young's Literal Translation
2 Corinthians 12:16
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Now granted, I did not burden you; yet sly as I am, I took you in by deceit!
But be it so: I did not burthen you: neuerthelesse beeing craftie, I caught you with guile.
But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit.
But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself; nevertheless, devious person that I am, I took you in by deceit.
It is clear I was not a burden to you, but you think I was tricky and lied to catch you.
But be that as it may, I did not burden you [with my support]. But [some say that] I was sly and took you by trickery.
But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself; nevertheless, crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit.
But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself. Nevertheless, crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit.
Be that as it may, I was not a burden to you; but crafty as I am, I caught you by trickery.
You agree that I wasn't a burden to you. Maybe that's because I was trying to catch you off guard and trick you.
Let it be granted, then, that I was not a burden to you; but, crafty fellow that I am, I took you with trickery!
But be it so. *I* did not burden you, but being crafty I took you by guile.
It is clear that I was not a burden to you, but you think that I was tricky and used lies to catch you.
But bee it that I charged you not: yet for as much as I was craftie, I tooke you with guile.
But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless as a shrewd man, I caught you with guile:
You will agree, then, that I was not a burden to you. But someone will say that I was tricky, and trapped you with lies.
But let it be. I have not been a burden to you, but because I was crafty, I took you by cunning.
But let it be so, I did not burden you; but being crafty, I took you with bait.
But be it so, I did not myself burden you; but, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
But let it be so, that I was not a trouble to you myself; but (someone may say) being false, I took you with deceit.
But be it so, I did not myself burden you. But, being crafty, I caught you with deception.
Granting that I have not been a burden to you, was I a clever schemer who trapped you by some trick?2 Corinthians 11:9;">[xr]
And, perhaps, (though) I did not burden you, yet (it may be said), as a crafty man with deceit I have robbed you.
But perhaps, though I was not burdensome to you, yet, like a cunning man, I filched from you by craftiness !
But be it, [that] I was not chargeable vnto you: Neuerthelesse, when I was craftie, I caught you with guile.
But be it so, I did not myself burden you; but, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
But be it so, I did not myself burden you. But, being crafty, I caught you with deception.
But be it so: I did not burden you: but being crafty, I caught you with guile.
If I love you so intensely, am I the less to be loved? Be that as it may: I was not a burden to you. But being by no means scrupulous, I entrapped you, they say!
But be it; Y greuyde not you, but whanne Y was sutil, Y took you with gile.
But let it be so, I did not myself burden you; but, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
But be that as it may, I have not burdened you. Yet because I was a crafty person, I took you in by deceit!
But be that as it may, I did not burden you. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you by cunning!
Some of you admit I was not a burden to you. But others still think I was sneaky and took advantage of you by trickery.
It is true that I was not a heavy load to you. But some say I set a trap for you.
Let it be assumed that I did not burden you. Nevertheless (you say) since I was crafty, I took you in by deceit.
But let it be! - I, myself, did not burden you, - Notwithstanding, being crafty, with guile, I caught you?
But be it so: I did not burthen you: but being crafty, I caught you by guile.
But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by guile.
But be it yt I greved you not: never the lesse I was crafty and toke you with gile.
But let it be so that I greued you not, neuertheles for so moch as I was craftye, I toke you wt gyle.
'tis own'd I did not put you to any charges myself: but was so crafty, as to over-reach you, by others.
And why is it that I keep coming across these whiffs of gossip about how my self-support was a front behind which I worked an elaborate scam? Where's the evidence? Did I cheat or trick you through anyone I sent? I asked Titus to visit, and sent some brothers along. Did they swindle you out of anything? And haven't we always been just as aboveboard, just as honest?
Y'all know I didn't ask for anything while I was there. Yet, some of you still think I somehow tricked y'all into doing something you didn't want to do.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
I did not: 2 Corinthians 12:13, 2 Corinthians 11:9, 2 Corinthians 11:10
being: That is, as my enemies represent, 2 Corinthians 1:12, 2 Corinthians 4:2, 2 Corinthians 7:2, 2 Corinthians 10:2, 2 Corinthians 10:3, 1 Thessalonians 2:3, 1 Thessalonians 2:5, 1 Peter 2:3
Reciprocal: 2 Kings 5:22 - give them 2 Kings 10:19 - But Jehu Nehemiah 5:16 - all my Matthew 4:19 - I will 1 Corinthians 9:3 - them 2 Peter 1:16 - we have
Cross-References
say, I pray thee, thou [art] my sister, so that it is well with me because of thee, and my soul hath lived for thy sake.'
And it cometh to pass, at the entering of Abram into Egypt, that the Egyptians see the woman that she [is] exceeding fair;
and princes of Pharaoh see her, and praise her unto Pharaoh, and the woman is taken [to] Pharaoh's house;
and Abram [is] exceedingly wealthy in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
And Abimelech taketh sheep and oxen, and servants and handmaids, and giveth to Abraham, and sendeth back to him Sarah his wife;
and Jehovah hath blessed my lord exceedingly, and he is great; and He giveth to him flock, and herd, and silver, and gold, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and camels, and asses;
and he hath possession of a flock, and possession of a herd, and an abundant service; and the Philistines envy him,
and I have ox, and ass, flock, and man-servant, and maid-servant, and I send to declare to my lord, to find grace in his eyes.'
and his substance is seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred pairs of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a service very abundant; and that man is greater than any of the sons of the east.
And Jehovah hath blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning, and he hath fourteen thousand of a flock, and six thousand camels, and a thousand pairs of oxen, and a thousand she-asses.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
But be it so, I did not burden you,.... These words are not spoken by the apostle in his own person of himself, but in the person of his adversaries, and contain a concession and an objection of theirs, but be it so; they granted that he had not burdened the Corinthians, that he had took nothing of them himself for preaching the Gospel; they owned that he had preached it freely; this was so clear a point, and so flagrant a case, that they could not deny it; yet they insinuated to the Corinthians, and objected to the apostle, that though he did not receive anything from them with his own hands, yet he craftily and cunningly made use of others to drain their purses, and receive it for him; and which is suggested in the next clause:
nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile; so say the false apostles of me; for these are not the words of the apostle in his own person; nor to be understood of any spiritual craft, or lawful cunning and prudent artifices used by him, to allure and draw the Corinthians into a good liking and opinion of the Gospel and of his ministry, and so caught them, and was the happy means of their conversion; but they are spoken in the person of the false apostles, charging him with a wicked and criminal craftiness, by making use of other persons in a sly underhanded way, to get this church's money, when he pretended to preach the Gospel freely; to which he answers in the next verse.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
But be it so - This is evidently a charge of his enemies; or at least a charge which it might be supposed they would make. Whether they ever in fact made it, or whether the apostle merely anticipates an objection, it is impossible to determine. It is clearly to be regarded as the language of objectors; for:
(1) It can never be supposed that Paul would state as a serious matter that he had caught them with deceit or fraud.
(2) He answers it as an objection in the following verse. The meaning is, “We admit that you did not burden us. You did not exact a support from us. But all this was mere trick. You accomplished the same thing in another way. You professed when with us not to seek our property but our souls. But in various ways you contrived to get our money, and to secure your object. You made others the agents for doing this, and sent them among us under various pretexts to gain money from us.” It will be remembered that Paul had sent; Titus among them to take up the collection for the poor saints in Judea 2 Corinthians 8:6, and it is not at all improbable that some there had charged Paul with making use of this pretence only to obtain money for his own private use. To guard against this charge. was one of the reasons why Paul was so anxious to have some persons appointed by the church to take charge of the contribution; see 1 Corinthians 16:3; compare the notes on 2 Corinthians 8:19-21.
Being crafty - Being cunning That is, by sending persons to obtain money on different pretences.
I caught you with guile - I took you by deceit or fraud. That is, making use of fraud in pretending that the money was for poor and afflicted saints, when in reality it was for my own use. It is impossible that Paul should have ever admitted this of himself; and they greatly pervert the passage who suppose that it applies to him, and then plead that it is right to make use of guile in accomplishing their purposes. Paul never carried his measures by dishonesty, nor did he ever justify fraud; compare the notes on Acts 23:6.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. But be it so, I did not burden you — That is: You grant that I did not burden you, that I took nothing from you, but preached to you the Gospel freely; but you say that, BEING CRAFTY, I caught you with guile; i.e. getting from you, by means of others, what I pretended to be unwilling to receive immediately from yourselves.
Many persons suppose that the words, being crafty, I caught you with guile, are the words of the apostle and not of his slanderers; and therefore have concluded that it is lawful to use guile, deceit, c., in order to serve a good and a religious purpose. This doctrine is abominable and the words are most evidently those of the apostle's detractors, against which he defends his conduct in the two following verses.
