2 Corinthians 11:16–33

Paul Boasts in His Sufferings

¹⁶Again I say, do not let anyone think I am foolish. But indeed, if you do, accept me even as foolish, in order that I also may boast a little. ¹⁷What I am saying in this project of boasting, I am not saying as the Lord would say, but as in foolishness. ¹⁸Since many are boasting according to human standards, I also will boast. ¹⁹For because you^* are wise, you put up with foolish people gladly! ²⁰For you put up with it if someone enslaves you, if someone devours you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone is presumptious toward you, if someone strikes you in the face. ²¹I say this to my shame, namely, that we have been weak.

But in whatever anyone dares to boast—I am speaking in foolishness—I also dare to boast. ²²Are they Hebrews? I am also! Are they Israelites? I am also! Are they descendants of Abraham? I am also! ²³Are they servants of Christ?—I am speaking as though I were beside myself—I am more so, with far greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with beatings to a much greater degree, in danger of death many times. ²⁴Five times I received at the hands of the Jews forty lashes less one. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. A day and a night I have spent in the deep water. ²⁶I have been on journeys many times, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from my own people, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers because of false brothers, ²⁷with toil and hardship, often in sleepless nights, with hunger and thirst, often going hungry, in cold and poorly clothed. ²⁸Apart from these external things, there is the pressure on me every day of the anxiety about all the churches. ²⁹Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to sin, and I do not burn with indignation? ³⁰If it is necessary to boast, I will boast about the things related to my weakness^e. ³¹The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever^f, knows that I am not lying. ³²In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to take me into custody, ³³and I was lowered through a window through the wall in a rope-basket, and I escaped his hands.