2 Timothy 4:6

For I am now ready to be offered The present tense is still more vivid, and so the personal pronoun for as to me I am already being offered; and the Greek word means -am being poured out as a drink-offering." St Paul recalls the thought and very phrase of his letter to Philippi in the first captivity; what was then a possibility is now a certainty; Philippians 2:17, -If I am required to pour out my life-blood as a libation over the sacrificial offering of your faith, I rejoice myself and I congratulate you all therein." See Bp Lightfoot, who quotes the similar metaphor recorded of St Paul's great heathen contemporary Seneca when on the point of death, -respergens proximos servorum addita voce, libare se liquorem illum Jovi liberatori." Tac. Ann. xv. 64.

my departure. Another thought and phrase from the same time and letter, Philippians 1:23, -I am hemmed in on both sides, my own desire tending towards this, to depart and to be with Christ." The metaphor of verb there and noun here is of a journey either by land or sea loosing tent-cords, or weighing anchor, for starting up to depart; this latter part of the meaning belongs to the preposition. So in Luke 12:36, -he will return from the wedding" ought to be rendered -he will depart." The servants look out eagerly not merely at the moment of his return being due, but from the moment of his departure fromthe feast being due. Clement of Rome connects this word, used for -death," with -journey," used for life. -Blessed are the elders who have taken the journey before us, in that they had their departure in mature and fruitful age" (ad Cor. c. 44). The corresponding words for arrivalat the end of a stage in the journey are the same verb and noun compounded with the preposition -down" instead of -up": for verb see Genesis 19:2, where Lot asks the angels to -tarry all night," and Luke 9:12, - lodgeand get victuals," Luke 19:7, -He is gone in to lodgewith a man that is a sinner"; for noun Luke 2:7, -no room for them in the inn," Luke 22:11, -where is the guest-chamber?" The original meaning of the word would be -to loose the beasts of burden for settling down to rest." Our word here has become an English word, analysis, from the cognate sense of -breaking up" or analysing the component parts, e.g. of a sentence.

is at hand Rather with R.V. is come, lit. -stands by" me, cf. Acts 23:11, -the Lord stood byhim and said." It is altogether a word of St Luke's, being used eighteen times by him; by St Paul above, 2 Timothy 4:2, and 1 Thessalonians 5:3, and nowhere else in N.T.