³Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in all affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, thus through Christ our comfort overflows also. ⁶But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort that is at work in the patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer. ⁷And our hope for you is firm, because we^* know that as you are sharers in the sufferings, so also you will be sharers in the comfort.

⁸For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning our affliction that happened in the province of Asia,^a that we were burdened to an extraordinary degree, beyond our strength, so that we were in despair even of living. ⁹But we ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we would not be putting confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, ¹⁰who delivered us from so great a risk of death, and will deliver us, in whom we have put our hope that he will also deliver us again, ¹¹while^* you also join in helping on our behalf^b by prayer, so that thanks may be given on our behalf^c by many persons for this gracious gift given to us through the help of many.

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Footnotes

*Here “because” is supplied as a component of the participle (“is”) which is understood as causal
aA reference to the Roman province of Asia (modern Asia Minor)
*Here “while” is supplied as a component of the temporal genitive absolute participle (“join in helping”)
bLiterally “on behalf of us”
cLiterally “on behalf of us”