2 Corinthians 4:17 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For our light affliction,— This is one of the most emphatical passages in St. Paul's writings; in which he speaks as much like an orator as an Apostle. The lightness of the trial is expressed by Το ελαφρον της θλιψεως, the lightness of our affliction; as if he had said, "It is even levity itself, in such a comparison." On the other hand, the Καθ' υπερβολην εις υπερβολην, which we render, far more exceeding, is infinitely emphatical, and cannot be fully expressed by any translation. It signifies that all hyperboles fall short of describing that weighty, eternal glory, so solid and lasting, that you may pass from one hyperbole to another, and yet when you have gained the last, it is infinitelybelow it. It is every where visible what an influence St. Paul's Hebrew had upon his Greek: כבד kebed, signifies to be heavy, and to be glorious; St. Paul in his Greek unites these significations, and says, weight of glory. See Blackwall's Sacred Classics, vol. 1: p. 332. Doddridge and Locke.