2 Corinthians 11:16-33 - Paul Boasts In His Sufferings
16 To return to what I was saying. Let no one suppose that I am foolish. Or if you must, at any rate make allowance for me as being foolish, in order that I, as well as they, may boast a little. 17 What I am now saying, I do not say by the Lord's command, but as a fool in his folly might, in this reckless boasting. 18 Since many boast for merely human reasons, I too will boast. 19 Wise as you yourselves are, you find pleasure in tolerating fools. 20 For you tolerate it, if any one enslaves you, lives at your expense, makes off with your property, gives himself airs, or strikes you on the face. 21 I use the language of self-disparagement, as though I were admitting our own feebleness. Yet for whatever reason any one is 'courageous' --I speak in mere folly--I also am courageous.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if I were out of my mind.) 24 From the Jews I five times have received forty lashes all but one. 25 Three times I have been beaten with Roman rods, once I have been stoned, three times I have been shipwrecked, once for full four and twenty hours I was floating on the open sea. 26 I have served Him by frequent travelling, amid dangers in crossing rivers, dangers from robbers; dangers from my own countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles; dangers in the city, dangers in the Desert, dangers by sea, dangers from spies in our midst; 27 with labour and toil, with many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, in frequent fastings, in cold, and with insufficient clothing.
28 And besides other things, which I pass over, there is that which presses on me daily--my anxiety for all the Churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led astray into sin, and I am not aflame with indignation? 30 If boast I must, it shall be of things which display my weakness. 31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ--He who is blessed throughout the Ages--knows that I am speaking the truth. 32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas kept guards at the gates of the city in order to apprehend me, 33 but through an opening in the wall I was let down in a basket, and so escaped his hands.