4For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you grief but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “love” in English is typically translated in Hakka Chinese as thung-siak / 痛惜 or “pain-love” when it refers to God’s love.
The same term is used for a variety of Hebrew terms that cover a range of English translations that refer to God as the agent, including “love,” “compassion,” and “mercy.”
Paul McLean explains: “[Thung-siak / 痛惜] has been used for many years in a popular Hakka-Christian mountain song based on John 3:16. The translation team decided that for this and other reasons it would be a good rendering here. It helps point to the fact that God’s ‘love’ is a compassionate (cum passio, with suffering) love.”
Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Corinthians 2:4:
Uma: “When I wrote that letter, my heart was sad, I felt very heavy, to-the-point-that/until my tears dripped. It was not my purpose in writing that letter to make your hearts sad. I wrote that letter so you would know how big my love for you is.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When I wrote to you, I was really sad/troubled in my liver and I had to cry. But the reason I wrote to you was not so that you would be sad, but so that you would know as to how great my love is for you all.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “When I sent you that letter, I was very sad. My breath was painful and my tears flowed. However, it was not my purpose at that time, to cause you grief but rather, I wanted you to know that you were very dear here to my breath.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Therefore when I wrote to you, I-grant-you that I was exceedingly burdened and my eyes flowed-tears due to my extreme sorrow. But I want you to know that I didn’t write in order to make-you -sad but rather to show my large love for you.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When I wrote that letter of mine it was really just like my insides were being taken out and I really felt bad. I really cried over it. But it’s not that I wrote you so that I would give you grief, but rather so that I could really prove/testify how big is my holding you dear.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “When I wrote the letter I sent to you, truly I didn’t know what to write. I had a great sad heart, even to crying. I knew that you would be sad because of the words I wrote. But concerning the word I sent to you, I didn’t send the word to make you sad, rather I sent the word in order that you know that I overflowingly love you.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
For I wrote refers to the letter mentioned in the previous verse. Revised English Bible says “That letter I sent you.” Some translators may wish to begin this sentence with a temporal clause: “When I wrote that letter….”
Much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears: these three nominal expressions may have to be translated by verbs in a number of languages. The first of these is translated by Contemporary English Version “I was suffering terribly.” The affliction is here not external pain but rather emotional distress. Some translators may be tempted to combine the first two of these expressions in a single rendering because they are so similar in meaning, but if possible this should be avoided since the cumulative effect is important. Some possible models are “I was very sad and suffering greatly so that I was actually crying as I wrote that letter to you” or “when I wrote the letter to you I was so unhappy and troubled that I cried.” One language translates the three similar expressions as follows: “Truly I wrote those things to you with [emotional] pain and sadness in my heart and tears in my eyes.”
The noun phrase anguish of heart may be rendered “my heart was heavy,” “my heart was breaking,” or “I felt great sorrow in my heart.” For other comments on heart see 1.22. The words with many tears, literally “through many tears,” modifies the verb wrote. Revised English Bible says “How many tears I shed as I wrote it.” But in many languages it will be necessary to say something like “while I was writing I cried very much.”
Not to cause you pain: a similar expression occurs in 2 Cor. 2.2.
The abundant love that I have for you: the word abundant is literally “even more.” In most translations abundant modifies the verb “to have love,” as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, indicating the extent of his love. In the Greek, however, Abundant may modify the words for you, indicating that his love is even more for them than for other people (so Barrett, “that you might know the love that I have specially for you”; and Moffatt, “to convince you of my love, my special love for you”).
The pronouns you in this verse are all plural.
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 .
2:4a For through many tears I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart,
For I wrote to you (plur.) while in great trouble/difficulty and feeling distressed in my heart/insides and with great/much weeping,
-or-
In great suffering, grief, and with many tears I wrote that letter.
2:4b not to grieve you but to let you know how much I love you.
not to grieve you but to make known to you that I love you abundantly.
-or-
⌊I wrote to you,⌋ in order that you might know how very much I love you and not in order to make you feel sad/ashamed.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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