Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
I will not see you now by the way—literally, "I do not wish to see you this time in passing"; that is, to pay you now what would have to be a merely passing visit as I did in the second visit (II Corinthians 12:14). In contrast to "a while," that is, some time, as the Greek might better be translated.
but—The oldest manuscripts read "for."
His first intention had been (II Corinthians 1:15-16) to pass through them (Corinth) to Macedonia, and again return to them from Macedonia, and so to Judea; this he had announced in the lost epistle (I Corinthians 5:9); now having laid aside this intention (for which he was charged with levity, II Corinthians 1:17, etc., whereas it was through lenity, II Corinthians 1:23; II Corinthians 2:1), he announces his second plan of "not seeing them now by the way," but "passing through Macedonia" first on his way to them, and then "tarrying a while," and even "abiding and wintering with them."
for I do pass—as much as to say, "This is what I at last resolve upon" (not as the erroneous subscription of the Epistle represents it, as if he was THEN at Philippi, on his way through Macedonia); implying that there had been some previous communication upon the subject of the journey, and also that there had been some indecisiveness in the apostle's plan [PALEY]. In accordance with his second plan, we find him in Macedonia when Second Corinthians was written (II Corinthians 2:13; II Corinthians 8:1; II Corinthians 9:2, II Corinthians 9:4), and on his way to Corinth (II Corinthians 12:14; II Corinthians 13:1; compare Acts 20:1-2). "Pass through" is opposed to "abide" (I Corinthians 16:6). He was not yet in Macedonia (as I Corinthians 16:8 shows), but at Ephesus; but he was thinking of passing through it (not abiding as he purposed to do at Corinth).
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 Corinthians 16:7:
Romans 15:32
2 Corinthians 2:3
2 Corinthians 12:14
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