2 Corinthians 11

1 I would that ye could bear with me a little, that I might talk foolishly: and indeed, bear ye with me.

I wish you could have borne with a little foolish boasting on my part. Nay, do bear with me.

2 For I am jealous over you, with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to a husband as a chaste virgin, whom I would present to the Messiah.

I am jealous over you with God's own jealousy. For I have betrothed you to Christ to present you to Him like a faithful bride to her one husband.

3 But I fear, lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve by his craftiness, so your minds should be corrupted from simplicity towards the Messiah.

But I am afraid that, as the serpent in his craftiness deceived Eve, so your minds may be led astray from their single-heartedness and their fidelity to Christ.

4 For if he that cometh to you, had proclaimed to you another Jesus, whom we have not proclaimed; or if ye had received another Spirit, which ye have not received; or another gospel, which ye have not accepted; ye might well have given assent.

If indeed some visitor is proclaiming among you another Jesus whom we did not proclaim, or if you are receiving a Spirit different from the One you have already received or a Good News different from that which you have already welcomed, your toleration is admirable!

5 For, I suppose, I came not short of those legates who most excel.

Why, I reckon myself in no respect inferior to those superlatively great Apostles.

6 For, though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but in all things we have been manifest among you.

And if in the matter of speech I am no orator, yet in knowledge I am not deficient. Nay, we have in every way made that fully evident to you.

7 Did I indeed commit an offence, by humbling myself that ye might be exalted? and by proclaiming the gospel of God to you gratis?

Is it a sin that I abased myself in order for you to be exalted, in that I proclaimed God's Good News to you without fee or reward?

8 And I robbed other churches, and I took pay of them for ministering to you.

Other Churches I robbed, receiving pay from them in order to do you service.

9 And when I came among you and was needy, I was burdensome to none of you; for the brethren who came from Macedonia, supplied my wants: and in all things I kept myself, and I will keep myself, from being burdensome to you.

And when I was with you and my resources failed, there was no one to whom I became a burden--for the brethren when they came from Macedonia fully supplied my wants--and I kept myself from being in the least a burden to you, and will do so still.

10 As the truth of the Messiah is in me, this glorying shall not be made vain as to me in the regions of Achaia.

Christ knows that it is true when I say that I will not be stopped from boasting of this anywhere in Greece.

11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knoweth.

And why? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do.

12 But what I do, that also I will do; that I may cut off occasion, from them who seek occasion: so that in the thing wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.

But I will persist in the same line of conduct in order to cut the ground from under the feet of those who desire an opportunity of getting themselves recognized as being on a level with us in the matters about which they boast.

13 For they are false legates, crafty workers, and feign themselves to be legates of the Messiah.

For men of this stamp are sham apostles, dishonest workmen, assuming the garb of Apostles of Christ.

14 And in this there is nothing strange. For if Satan feigneth himself an angel of light,

And no wonder. Satan, their master, can disguise himself as an angel of light.

15 it is no great thing if his ministers feign themselves ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

It is therefore no great thing for his servants also to disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be in accordance with their actions.

16 Again I say, let no one think of me, as being a fool: or if otherwise, receive me as a fool, that I may glory a little.

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 say not in our Lord, but as in folly, in this matter of glorying.

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 Because many glory after the flesh, I also will glory.

Since many boast for merely human reasons, I too will boast.

19 For ye hear with indulgence them who lack reason, seeing ye are wise.

Wise as you yourselves are, you find pleasure in tolerating fools.

20 And ye give ear to him, who putteth you in bondage; and to him, who devoureth you; and to him, who taketh from you; and to him, who exalteth himself over you; and to him, who smiteth you in the face.

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 speak as if under contempt: I speak as if we were impotent, through deficiency of understanding; that in whatever thing any one is presuming, I also am presuming.

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 If they are Hebrews, so I also: or if they are Israelites, I also. If they are the seed of Abraham, I also.

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.

23 If they are ministers of the Messiah, (in defect of understanding, I say it, ) I am superior to them: in toils more than they, in stripes more than they, in bonds more than they, in deaths many times.

Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if I were out of my mind.) Much more am I His servant; serving Him more thoroughly than they by my labours, and more thoroughly also by my imprisonments, by excessively cruel floggings, and with risk of life many a time.

24 By the Jews, five times was I scourged, each time with forty stripes save one.

From the Jews I five times have received forty lashes all but one.

25 Three times was I beaten with rods: at one time I was stoned: three times I was in shipwreck, by day and by night; I have been in the sea, without a ship.

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 In journeyings many, in peril by rivers, in peril by robbers, in peril from my kindred, in peril from Gentiles: I have been in peril in cities; I have been in peril in the desert, in peril in the sea, in peril from false brethren.

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 In toil and weariness, in much watching, in hunger and thirst, in much fasting, in cold and nakedness:

with labour and toil, with many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, in frequent fastings, in cold, and with insufficient clothing.

28 besides many other things, and the thronging around me every day, and my anxiety for all the churches.

And besides other things, which I pass over, there is that which presses on me daily--my anxiety for all the Churches.

29 Who becometh weak, and I become not weak? Who is stumbled, and I burn not?

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led astray into sin, and I am not aflame with indignation?

30 If I must glory, I will glory in my infirmities.

If boast I must, it shall be of things which display my weakness.

31 God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, blessed for ever and ever, he knoweth that I lie not. (aiōn g165)

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ--He who is blessed throughout the Ages--knows that I am speaking the truth. (aiōn g165)

32 At Damascus, the commander of the army of Aretas the king, guarded the city of the Damascenes, to seize me.

In Damascus the governor under King Aretas kept guards at the gates of the city in order to apprehend me,

33 And from a window, in a basket, they let me down from the wall, and I escaped from his hands.

but through an opening in the wall I was let down in a basket, and so escaped his hands.