We: this pronoun refers to Paul and possibly to others with him, but it does not include the Corinthians. In keeping with their usual practice, Moffatt and An American Translation take it as an epistolary “we” and translate using first person singular pronouns; but this is less probable and is not recommended here.

As indicated in the New Jerusalem Bible note, the images of the four sentences in verses 8 and 9 are taken from the contests of gladiators in the ancient Greek world. There are four sets of participles in which the second of each set is preceded by a negation. There are many passive ideas in these four sentences that will have to be rendered actively in many languages. Frequently the best way to do this is to use an indefinite third person plural form, such as “They [habitually] afflict us…” for We are afflicted, for example.

The position of in every way in the Greek sentence gives emphasis to these words. In every way indicates the extent of the suffering: “We are afflicted with all kinds of hardships.” Good News Translation inserts the words “often” and “sometimes” in order to indicate that such troubles are not always present everywhere. The word “always” in verse 10 refers to the continuance of the afflictions in one form or another.

On afflicted see 1.6, where the same Greek word occurs.

But not crushed: the term so translated has the idea of restriction or narrow confinement. It has been rendered “never cornered” (Revised English Bible and similarly Translator’s New Testament), while Moffatt has “not hemmed in.” Knox has “yet still have room to breathe,” and Barclay has “never without a way out.”

The words perplexed and driven to despair come from the same root word in Greek, with the second participle in Greek having a form that indicates “intensely perplexed.” The root verb means “to be uncertain of how to act.” Contemporary English Version says “Even when we don’t know what to do, we never give up.” In an attempt to preserve the relationship between the two verbs, one may possibly translate something like Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, “sometimes at an impasse, but we manage to pass,” or “despairing, but not utterly desperate” (Anchor Bible), or possibly even “sometimes feeling lost, but never completely lost.”

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 .