Whereof ye had notice before - Instead of προκατηγγελμενην, spoken of before, BCDEFG, several others, with the Coptic, Vulgate, Itala, and several of the fathers, have προεπηγγελμενην, what was promised before. The sense is not very different; probably the latter reading was intended to explain the former. See the margin.
Bounty, and not as of covetousness - Had they been backward, strangers might have attributed this to a covetous principle; as it would appear that they were loth to give up their money, and that they parted with it only when they could not for shame keep it any longer. This is the property of a covetous heart; whereas readiness to give is the characteristic of a liberal mind. This makes a sufficiently plain sense; and we need not look, as some have done, for any new sense of πλεονεξια, covetousness, as if it were here to be understood as implying a small gift.
Therefore I thought it necessary - In order to secure the collection, and to avoid all unpleasant feeling on all hands.
That they would go before unto you - Before I should come.
And make up beforehand your bounty - Prepare it before I come. The word “bounty” is in the margin, rendered “blessing.” The Greek ( εὐλογία eulogia) means properly commendation, eulogy. Then it means blessing, praise applied to God. Then that which blesses - a gift, donation, favor, bounty - whether of God to human beings, or of one man to another. Here it refers to their contribution as that which would be adapted to confer a blessing on others, or suited to produce happiness. That the same might be ready as a matter of bounty - That it may truly appear as a liberal and voluntary offering; as an act of generosity and not as wrung or extorted from you. That it may be truly a blessing - a thank-offering to God and adapted to do good to people. And not as of covetousness - “And not like a sort of extortion, wrung from you by mere dint of importunity” - Doddridge. The word used here ( πλεονεξία pleonexia) means usually covetousness, greediness of gain, which leads a person to defraud others. The idea here is, that Paul would have them give this as an act of bounty, or liberality on their part, and not as an act of covetousness on his part, not as extorted by him from them.