What Does 2 Corinthians 9:6 Mean in the King James?
But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
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
What English calls “bountifully” is literally sowing “upon blessings”: abundance here is a way of giving, not just a larger amount.
THE MEANING
Your giving moves through a pattern of sowing and harvest: holding back yields sparingly, while sowing into blessing yields abundantly. What you give enters a living process of growth; the verse links the harvest to the measure and character of the sowing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that giving is only subtraction: what is given is pictured as seed in a continuing process, not as something that simply vanishes.
THE ROOT
ἐπ
ep’ eulogiais
GROWS FROM
εὐλογία (eulogia), from εὐλογέω (eulogeō; εὖ, eu, “well” + λόγος, logos, “word, speech”)
Blessing; the phrase literally means “upon blessings,” and here describes generous sowing.
“bountifully” in this verse is ep’ eulogiais. The Greek phrase frames the sowing as taking place “upon blessings.” English foregrounds the amount; the underlying image also names generosity as a blessing woven into the act, with a harvest growing from that kind of sowing.
ALSO GROWS
eulogeō: To bless; literally, to speak well.
εὐλογέω
This verb shows the blessing-language within the word translated “bountifully.”
logos: Word, speech.
λόγος
As a component of the blessing word, it links giving with the language of blessing.
φειδομένως
pheidomenōs
GROWS FROM
φείδομαι
pheidomai
To spare, refrain, or be sparing.
The verb behind “sparingly” carries the sense of sparing or refraining, so the word can hold more than a small quantity: it evokes sowing with something kept back. The verse sets that beside sowing into blessing, making the contrast about both measure and manner.
ALSO GROWS
pheidomai: To spare or refrain.
φείδομαι
This is the verb underlying the adverb and brings its sense of restraint into view.
pheidō: Sparingness, economy.
φειδώ
This related noun makes the idea of holding back explicit.
σπείρων
speirōn
GROWS FROM
σπείρω
speirō
To sow or scatter seed.
“soweth” in this verse is speirōn. The seed-family makes sowing inherently generative: seed becomes future seed or offspring. The harvest is already latent in the act of sowing; what leaves the hand enters a process of growth.
ALSO GROWS
sporos: Seed.
σπόρος
The seed is what the act of sowing places into the ground to grow.
sperma: Seed, offspring.
σπέρμα
This branch extends the seed image into what carries life forward.
THE PATTERN
What is sown sets the measure and character of what is gathered.
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.This verse uses the same Greek verbs for sowing and reaping, making the seed-and-harvest link explicit. Here, that pattern gains a sharper contour: the harvest follows the measure and character of the sowing.
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