But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:
We were, х egeneetheemen (G1096)] - 'we were made' by God's grace.
Gentle, х eepioi (G2261)] (so A C) - 'mild in bearing with the faults of others;' gentle (though firm) in reproving (2 Timothy 2:24). 'Aleph (') B Delta G f g, Vulgate, read 'we became х neepioi (G3516)] little children' (cf. Matthew 18:3-4). "Gentle" forms a better antithesis to 1 Thessalonians 2:6, and harmonizes better with what follows. He would hardly, in the same sentence, compare himself both to the 'little children' and to "a nurse," or 'suckling mother х trofos (G5162)]. Gentleness is the fitting characteristic of a nurse. Still, the very difficulty renders it unlikely that 'little children' is due to correctors; and the weight of authorities is for it (1 Corinthians 14:20). But the n may have been accidentally transferred from the end of egeneetheemen (G1096) to the beginning of eepioi (G2261).
Among you - Greek, 'in the midst of you,' laying aside authority: as one of yourselves,
Her, х ta (G3588) heautes (G1438)] - 'her own children' (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:11). So Galatians 4:19. How tenderly the mother nurses her own!