2 Corinthians 11:16-33 - Paul Boasts In His Sufferings
16 Again, I say let no one think me to be foolish; but if otherwise, even as a foolish man bear with me that I may boast a little. 17 What I say, I do not say according to the Lord, but as it were in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. 18 Since many boast of the flesh, I also will boast. 19 You endure fools patiently being wise; 20 for you endure it if any one reduces you to servitude, if any one devours you, if any one takes from you, if any one exalts himself against you, if any one beats you in the face. 21 I speak of reproach as if we were weak; wherein any one is bold, I speak foolishly, I am bold also.
22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the posterity of Abraham? so am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ? I speak foolishly, I am more; in labors most abundant, in stripes above measure, in imprisonments most abundant, in deaths often; 24 five times I received of the Jews forty [stripes] lacking one, 25 thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice have I been shipwrecked, a night and a day have I spent in the deep; 26 often on journeys, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from [my own] race, in dangers from gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers on the sea, in dangers among false brothers, 27 in labor and weariness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Besides things without, that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I am not displeased? 30 If it is necessary to boast, I will boast of my infirmities. 31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I lie not. 32 In Damascus, the ethnarch, when Aretas was king, guarded the city of the Damascenes, desiring to take me, 33 and I was let down in a rope-basket, by a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.