2 Corinthians 11:23-33
2 Corinthians 11:23-33 AMP
Are they [self-proclaimed] servants of Christ?—I am speaking as if I were out of my mind—I am more so [for I exceed them]; with far more labors, with far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, and often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. [Deut 25:3] Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent adrift on the sea; many times on journeys, [exposed to] danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own countrymen, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger on the sea, danger among those posing as believers; in labor and hardship, often unable to sleep, in hunger and thirst, often [driven to] fasting [for lack of food], in cold and exposure [without adequate clothing]. Besides those external things, there is the daily [inescapable] pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel [his] weakness? Who is made to sin, and I am not on fire [with sorrow and concern]? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that reveal my weakness [the things by which I am made weak in the eyes of my opponents]. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed and to be praised forevermore, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor (ethnarch) under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to arrest me, and I was [actually] let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and slipped through his fingers.