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2Co_9:9 connects itself with περισσ . εἰς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθ . This περισσεύειν is to exhibit the fulfilment of the Scripture saying in your case: He scattered, He gave to the poor;[289] His righteousness remains for e2Co 9:The quotation is Psa_112:9 (exactly after the LXX.), where the subject is ἀνὴρ ὁ φοβούμενος τὸν κύριον .
ἐσκόρπισεν ] figurative description of the beneficent man, who μετὰ δαψιλείας ἔδωκε , Chrysostom. Comp. Symmachus, Pro_11:24. Bengel well says: “Verbum generosum: spargere, plena manu, sine anxia cogitatione, quorsum singula grana cadant.” But that Paul (not the original) had in his view the image of strewing seed, is already probable from 2Co_9:6, and is confirmed by 2Co_9:10 (in opposition to Hofmann). Regarding the use in late Greek of the originally Ionic word, see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 218.
ἡ δικαιοσύνη ] is not, with Chrysostom, Theophylact, Calvin, Grotius, Estius, Bengel, Rosenmüller, Vater, Emmerling, and others, to be taken as beneficence (Zachariae and Flatt have even: recompense), which it never means, not even in Mat_6:1; but it always means righteousness, which, however, may, according to the context, as here (comp. Tob_14:11), be that which expresses itself by doing good. So also öÀãÈ÷Èä which on this account is often translated by ἐλεημοσύνη in the LXX. (see Gesen. Thes. III. p. 1151; Buxt. Lex. Talm. p. 1890). The Christian moral righteousness is beneficent through the love which comes from faith. Comp. Rom_12:9; Rom_10:13-15; Gal_5:6.
μένει εἰς τ . αἰῶνα ] is, according to Paul, to be taken quite in the full sense of the words: remains for ever (comp. Diod. i. 56; Lucian, Philops. 17), never ceases, either before the Parousia, when his δικαιοσύνη continues to develope its vital activity, as in general, so specially through beneficent love, or after the Parousia, when, in itself incapable of being lost, it has its eternal subsistence in love that cannot be lost (1Co_13:8; 1Co_13:13). Explanations, such as of a perpetua laus apud homines and gloriosa merces apud Deum (Estius, comp. Chrysostom, Grotius, Emmerling, and others), or that it applies merely to the earthly lifetime of the beneficent one (Beza), are at variance with the words, which affirm the ΜΈΝΕΙΝ of the ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΎΝΗ itself; and in the N. T. ΜΈΝΕΙΝ ΕἸς ΤῸΝ ΑἸῶΝΑ is always to be taken in the definite sense of eternal abiding. See Joh_8:35; Joh_12:34; Heb_7:24; 1Pe_1:25; 1Jn_2:17. Comp. μένειν εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνοιν , Joh_6:27. Hence de Wette also takes it too indefinitely: “that the beneficence itself, or the means for it, has enduring subsistence.” Chrysostom and Theodoret have, moreover, inverting the matter, found the beneficence here, which Chrysostom compares to a fire consuming sins, to be the cause of the justification. It is its consequence and effect, Gal_5:6; Gal_5:22, Col_3:12 ff., al., as is the Christian righteousness of life itself, Romans 6; Rom_8:4 ff.
[289] Regarding the notion of πένης , which does not occur elsewhere in the N. T. ( ὁ ἐκ πόνου καὶ ἐνεργείας τὸ ζῆν ἔχων , Etym. M.), and its distinction from πτωχός , which among the Greeks expresses the notion of mendicant poverty, see Arist. Plut. 552 f.; Stallb. ad Plat. Apol. p. 23 C. Regarding αὖος , egenus, esuriens, see Jacobs, ad Anthol. IX. p. 431, XII. p. 465.