The pronoun he refers to God (verse 1). Good News Translation substitutes the noun “God” for the pronoun (so also Bible en français courant and Barclay).

This quotation comes from the Septuagint Greek translation of Isa 49.8, not from the original Hebrew. In the Old Testament context the verse refers to God’s help to the people of Israel. Paul uses this text to emphasize the urgent nature of his appeal to the Corinthians.

He says: Paul applies these words to the present time as if God were speaking these words directly to the Corinthians. Revised English Bible‘s “He has said” indicates that Paul is quoting from words that God had already spoken. The present tense of this verb in Greek indicates the permanent validity of Scripture. Helen Barrett Montgomery’s The New Testament in Modern English has “For he said,” which fails to show the continuing validity of what God said. Translators may wish to make explicit where God has said these words: “in the Scriptures” (so Bible en français courant and Contemporary English Version).

The acceptable time: though some interpreters understand this to mean “acceptable by human beings,” most understand this to be the time acceptable by God to show his favor to his people (so Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

The Greek contains a play on words that Revised Standard Version keeps but Good News Translation does not. In 6.1 Paul says “to accept the grace of God”; and in 6.2 he speaks of the acceptable time. Good News Translation brings in from verse 1 the idea that the acceptable time is the time for God’s grace to be shown. While Paul uses two related words, both of which are translated acceptable, experts in the Greek language make no distinction in meaning, and translators should not feel that they have to look for two different words in their own language.

I have listened to you: God heard the people’s prayers. The sense is not merely that God listened impassively to their prayers, but that he answered them favorably. Both New Jerusalem Bible and Revised English Bible use the verb “answered” here.

The second person pronouns in this quotation are singular in Greek, and in the Old Testament they are taken as referring to the Servant of the Lord. This passage may have come to Paul’s mind because of a similarity with his own situation. But in the appeal that follows, the application is broadened to include the Corinthians. Nevertheless the receptor language rendering should reflect the singular pronouns of the original quotation.

The day of salvation: God is the implicit agent of the noun salvation. The meaning is that God helped his people “when the day arrived for me to save you” (Good News Translation).

The structure of the Old Testament quotation will have to be changed in some languages to make it more natural. It may read “I heard you at the right time; yes, I helped you on the day of salvation.” The translation should not give the impression of two separate and distinct events. Rather, this is an example of parallelism where the two elements refer to a single event.

The last sentence in this verse is Paul’s comment on the passage from Isaiah. Translators should take care to insure that this is not taken as a part of the Old Testament quotation. This may be very difficult in those languages that do not use quotation marks. Translators in some languages will naturally say something like “That is what he said” at the end of a quotation. In those languages it will be clear for those who hear this verse read that the last part of the verse is not a part of the quotation.

Behold: as in 5.17 (as well as 6.9), this particle serves to call special attention to what follows. Good News Translation attempts to render this with “Listen!” but does not repeat it in the second instance. Other versions use only the exclamation mark (New American Bible).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellingworth, Paul. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .