THE GOD OF COMFORT

3 Blessed beg the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of merciesh and the God of all comfort.i 4 He comforts us in all our affliction,B so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as the sufferingsj of Christk overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.l 6 If we are afflicted,m it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer.n 7 And our hopeo for you is firm, because we know that as you sharep in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.

8 We don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia.q We were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strengthr—so that we even despaireds of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in Godt who raisesu the dead.