Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 4:9

"pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed;" — 2 Corinthians 4:9 (ASV)

Persecuted, but not forsaken.—Better, perhaps, as expressing in both terms of the clause the condition of a soldier on the field of battle, pursued, yet not abandoned. The next clause is again distinctly military, or, perhaps, agonistic: stricken down (as the soldier by some dart or javelin), yet not perishing. In the faint, yet pursuing, of Judges 8:4, we have an antithesis of the same kind in a narrative of actual warfare.