17. And, indeed, if my neshamah is to be poured out as a nesekh (libation wine) offering upon the korban (sacrifice) of the avodas kodesh (kohen's service, ministry) of your emunah, I have simcha, rejoicing together with you all [cf. Ro 15:16; 2Ti 4:6].
18. And in the same way also you have simcha, rejoicing together with me [l:4,18;1:25;2:2,17].
19. I have tikvah b'Adoneinu Yehoshua to send Timotiyos to you soon, that I also may be cheered up in the da'as of the things concerning you.
20. For I have no one likeminded who will emesdik (genuinely) care for your spiritual welfare.
21. All of them are seeking their own interests [2:4], not those of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua.
22. But of the proven mamashus (real worth) of Timotiyos you have da'as, because as a ben with his abba, Timotiyos served with me in the Besuras HaGeulah.
23. Therefore, I have tikvah to send him, as soon as I see how things will go with me.
24. But I have bitachon in Hashem that indeed I will come quickly.
25. But I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, the Ach b'Moshiach and fellow po'el (worker) and fellow chaiyal (soldier) of mine, but your shliach and keli kodesh (minister) of my need [4:18].
26. I am sending him to you, because he was yearning after you all and was under zeiyar (extremely great) stress, because you heard that he was ill.
27. For indeed he was ill, coming near to death, but Hashem had mercy on him not on him only but also on me, lest I should have agmat nefesh upon agmat nefesh.
28. Therefore, I am all the more eager to dispatch him to you, in order that when you have seen him again, you may have simcha and I may have less agmat nefesh.
29. Therefore, receive him in Adoneinu with all simcha and hold esteem for such klei kodesh (ministers) [1C 16:16,8; 1Ti 5:17],