What Does 2 Corinthians 12:10 Mean in the King James?
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse’s shock is that not-strength and power occupy the same present moment.
THE MEANING
Your weakness, insults, need, persecution, and distress remain real in the verse’s present tense. For the Anointed One’s sake, the speaker takes pleasure in these conditions, and the final line says that when you are weak, you are strong. The two states occupy the same moment; the pressure is not erased.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Weakness means strength has disappeared.
THE ROOT
ἀσθενείαις
astheneiais
GROWS FROM
σθεν
sthen
σθένος (sthenos) means strength or force; the prefix ἀ- (a-) marks its absence.
The word rendered “infirmities” describes a state of not-strength. The closing claim that the speaker is strong places capacity inside that very state, rather than after it has passed.
ALSO GROWS
asthenēs: weak; without strength
ἀσθενής
This related adjective makes weakness a condition of lacking strength, not a verdict about worth.
astheneō: to be weak; to be ill
ἀσθενέω
The verb gives the root a lived form: weakness is something a person can experience.
στενοχωρίαις
stenochōriais
GROWS FROM
στενοχωρ
stenochōr
This narrow-space word family joins στενός (stenos, narrow) with χώρα (chōra, place or space): distress as confinement in a narrow place.
“Distresses” carries the image of being pressed into a narrow space. The verse names that constriction plainly, while its final line refuses to let it define the speaker’s capacity.
ALSO GROWS
stenos: narrow; tight
στενός
This root element gives distress a spatial shape: a narrowed place.
stenochōreō: to be cramped; to be hemmed in
στενοχωρέω
This related verb appears in 2 Corinthians 4:8, where pressure is real but the speaker says he is not hemmed in.
δυνατός
dynatos
GROWS FROM
δυνα
dyna
The word family concerns ability and capacity, from δύναμαι (dunamai), to be able.
The closing “strong” carries the sense of being able or capable. Set beside not-strength, it makes the verse’s paradox about capacity present in weakness.
ALSO GROWS
dunamai: to be able; to have power
δύναμαι
This verb names the capacity implied by the verse’s closing word.
dynamis: power; ability
δύναμις
This related noun makes strength concrete as power or capacity.
THE PATTERN
Constriction and weakness do not define the full capacity present.
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.THE THREAD
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;“Distresses” here and “distressed” there belong to the same Greek narrow-space word family: being cramped or hemmed in. Together, the verses name pressure without making it the final measure of what the speaker can endure.
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