For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.
Labour and travail, х kopon (G2873)]. "Labour" means hardship in bearing; х mochthon (G3449)] "travail," hardship in doing: the former, toil with solicitude; the latter, weariness through fatigue (Grotius). Zanchius, the former spiritual (1 Thessalonians 3:5), the latter manual, labour. I would translate, 'weariness (so 2 Corinthians 11:27) and toil' [hard labour: from mogis (G3425) megas (G3173), implying the magnitude of the obstacles to be overcome] (Ellicott).
For. Omitted in the oldest manuscripts.
Labouring, х ergazomenoi (G2038)] - 'working;' namely, at tent-making (Acts 18:3).
Night and day. The Jews reckoned from sunset to sunset, so that night is put before day (cf. Acts 20:31). Their manual labours for a livelihood had to be not only by day, but by night also, in the intervals between spiritual labours.
Because we would not be chargeable, х pros (G4314) to (G3588) me (G3165) epibareesai (G1912)] - 'with a view to not burdening any of you' (2 Corinthians 11:9-10).
Preached unto you, х eis (G1519)] - 'unto and among you.' The 'three Sabbaths' mentioned, Acts 17:2, refer merely to the time of his preaching to the Jews in the synagogue. When rejected by them as a body, after having converted a few, he turned to the Gentiles: of these (whom he must have preached to in a place distinct from the synagogue) 'a great multitude believed' (Acts 17:4, where A Delta (not 'Aleph (') B E) read 'of the devout (proselytes) AND Greeks a great multitude.' In 1 Thessalonians 2:17 "the devout" are made a distinct class): then after he had, by labours among the Gentiles for some time, gathered many converts, the Jews, provoked by his success, assaulted Jason's house, and drove him away. His receiving "once and again," in Thessalonica, supplies from Philippi, implies a longer stay at Thessalonica than three weeks (Philippians 4:16). If "and" be omitted (Acts 17:4), the conversion of "devout Greeks" would naturally lead the apostle on to preach "and" be omitted (Acts 17:4), the conversion of "devout Greeks" would naturally lead the apostle on to preach to pagan.