¹⁶Again I say, may no one think me to be a fool; and if otherwise, even as a fool receive me, that I also a little may boast. ¹⁷That which I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this the confidence of boasting; ¹⁸since many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast: ¹⁹for gladly do ye bear with the fools—being wise, ²⁰for ye bear, if any one is bringing you under bondage, if any one doth devour, if any one doth take away, if any one doth exalt himself, if any one on the face doth smite you; ²¹in reference to dishonour I speak, how that we were weak, and in whatever any one is bold—in foolishness I say it—I also am bold.

²²Hebrews are they? I also! Israelites are they? I also! seed of Abraham are they? I also! ²³ministrants of Christ are they?—as beside myself I speak—I more; in labours more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths many times; ²⁴from Jews five times forty stripes save one I did receive; ²⁵thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice was I shipwrecked, a night and a day in the deep I have passed; ²⁶journeyings many times, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from kindred, perils from nations, perils in city, perils in wilderness, perils in sea, perils among false brethren; ²⁷in labouriousness and painfulness, in watchings many times, in hunger and thirst, in fastings many times, in cold and nakedness; ²⁸apart from the things without—the crowding upon me that is daily—the care of all the assemblies. ²⁹Who is infirm, and I am not infirm? who is stumbled, and I am not fired; ³⁰if to boast it behoveth me, of the things of my infirmity I will boast; ³¹the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—who is blessed to the ages—hath known that I do not lie!— ³²In Damascus the ethnarch of Aretas the king was watching the city of the Damascenes, wishing to seize me, ³³and through a window in a rope basket I was let down, through the wall, and fled out of his hands.

Chapter 12

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