After several verses of careful preparation (at least vv. 6-10 and possibly 3-10), Paul comes to the most central and sensitive point in this part of the letter. The first words are literally “for we hear.” “For” is a common word, in Greek as in English, often used, as in verse 7, in a weak and general sense. Here, on the contrary, the word has its full force and its strict meaning; it introduces an explanation of what has gone before. Good News Translation (contrast Barclay Translator’s New Testament) brings this out very well by we say this because, and secondarily by beginning a new paragraph (cf. Bijbel in Gewone Taal Bible en français courant Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch [but not Biblia Dios Habla Hoy] Le Nouveau Testament. Version Synodale). Jerusalem Bible begins a new paragraph at verse 10, making it relate to verse 11, in the manner that a rule is related to an example of its application. Barclay transforms the present “we hear” into “news has reached us.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, on the other hand, emphasizes both the present tense and the change to specific facts by translating “now we hear.” The text strongly implies that Paul has recently received news from Thessalonica, either by letter or by a direct oral message. There is no suggestion of hearsay or rumor.

Because of the particular form of this communication (namely, a letter), it may be necessary to render we say this as “we are writing this.”

In some languages a literal rendering of we hear would suggest actual listening rather than learning about an event through channels. Therefore it may be more satisfactory to translate we hear as “we have been told” or even “we have learned.” Such a shift from a literal rendering of hear may be necessary to avoid the suggestion of “rumor.”

Among you (Barclay “in your society,” Translator’s New Testament “of you”) reminds the reader that Paul is still addressing the whole community, including those members of it (“brothers,” cf. vv. 6, 15) who are behaving badly.

Live lazy lives (recalling 2 Thess. 3.6; see the notes there) is literally “are walking (i.e. behaving) lazily.” This is not a reference to a lifelong habit of laziness, but to a refusal to work.

The last part of the verse, literally “not working but being busybodies,” contains a play on words which raises difficulties similar to those mentioned in the notes on verses 2 and 3. Moffatt attempts a play on words with his “busybodies instead of busy.” The single word translated meddle in other people’s business is the same as the word “work,” with the addition of a prefix meaning “around” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “run around uselessly”). It is a secondary matter, depending on the resources of the receptor language, whether such a play on words can be reproduced in translation. If it can be done naturally, so much the better, but the more important translation problem is how to combine the two ideas of (1) not working and (2) interfering in other people’s affairs. The translation of (1) must not imply such total passivity as to contradict (2). Good News Translation slightly undertranslates (1), subordinating it to (2) by the phrase do nothing except. Barclay, at a rather higher level of language, keeps a good balance while still linking the two phrases closely together: “idle in their own affairs, and interfering in everyone else’s.”

The double relative clauses in verse 11, who live lazy lives and who do nothing except meddle in other people’s business, may create serious grammatical problems in some languages, and therefore some restructuring may be required. However, the relation between these two relative clauses is quite different from the relation between a similar set of relative clauses in verse 6. Here in verse 11 there is an element of contrast; these people refuse to work but do not hesitate to meddle in other people’s affairs. The contrast and the play on words can perhaps be introduced by setting off the final relative clause as a separate sentence, for example, “… who refuse to work. Rather, they are constantly involved in other people’s work,” or “who refuse to work for themselves but are busy meddling in other people’s work.” The rendering of “work for themselves” must not be understood in the sense of self-employment, but rather in a sense of “working in order to support themselves.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .