20. You tolerate anyone who orders you about or takes advantage of you or traps you or looks down on you or slaps you in the face.
21. I am ashamed to admit that we were too timid to do those things!But if anyone dares to boast about something — I am talking like a fool — I will be just as daring.
22. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I.
23. Are they Christ's servants? I sound like a madman — but I am a better servant than they are! I have worked much harder, I have been in prison more times, I have been whipped much more, and I have been near death more often.
24. Five times I was given the 39 lashes by the Jews;
25. three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent 24 hours in the water.
26. In my many travels I have been in danger from floods and from robbers, in danger from fellow-Jews and from Gentiles; there have been dangers in the cities, dangers in the wilds, dangers on the high seas, and dangers from false friends.
27. There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter, or clothing.
28. And not to mention other things, every day I am under the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
29. When someone is weak, then I feel weak too; when someone is led into sin, I am filled with distress.
30. If I must boast, I will boast about things that show how weak I am.
31. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus — blessed be his name for ever! — knows that I am not lying.
32. When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas placed guards at the city gates to arrest me.
33. But I was let down in a basket through an opening in the wall and escaped from him.