2 Corinthians, 11

1. I wish you would put up with a little foolishness from me -- not that you don't do this already.

1. Would to God ye could bear with me a little in [my] folly: and indeed bear with me.

2. The jealousy that I feel for you is, you see, God's own jealousy: I gave you all in marriage to a single husband, a virgin pure for presentation to Christ.

2. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present [you as] a chaste virgin to Christ.

3. But I am afraid that, just as the snake with his cunning seduced Eve, your minds may be led astray from single-minded devotion to Christ.

3. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

4. Because any chance comer has only to preach a Jesus other than the one we preached, or you have only to receive a spirit different from the one you received, or a gospel different from the one you accepted -- and you put up with that only too willingly.

4. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him].

5. Now, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to the super-apostles.

5. For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.

6. Even if there is something lacking in my public speaking, this is not the case with my knowledge, as we have openly shown to you at all times and before everyone.

6. But though [I be] rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.

7. Have I done wrong, then, humbling myself so that you might be raised up, by preaching the gospel of God to you for nothing?

7. Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?

8. I was robbing other churches, taking wages from them in order to work for you.

8. I robbed other churches, taking wages [of them], to do you service.

9. When I was with you and needed money, I was no burden to anybody, for the brothers from Macedonia brought me as much as I needed when they came; I have always been careful not to let myself be a burden to you in any way, and I shall continue to be so.

9. And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all [things] I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and [so] will I keep [myself].

10. And as Christ's truth is in me, this boast of mine is not going to be silenced in the regions of Achaia.

10. As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.

11. Why should it be? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do.

11. Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth.

12. I will go on acting as I do at present, to cut the ground from under the feet of those who are looking for a chance to be proved my equals in grounds for boasting.

12. But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.

13. These people are counterfeit apostles, dishonest workers disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

13. For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

14. There is nothing astonishing in this; even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

14. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

15. It is nothing extraordinary, then, when his servants disguise themselves as the servants of uprightness. They will come to the end appropriate to what they have done.

15. Therefore [it is] no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

16. To repeat: let no one take me for a fool, but if you do, then treat me as a fool, so that I, too, can do a little boasting.

16. I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.

17. I shall not be following the Lord's way in what I say now, but will be speaking out of foolishness in the conviction that I have something to boast about.

17. That which I speak, I speak [it] not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.

18. So many people boast on merely human grounds that I shall too.

18. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.

19. I know how happy you are to put up with fools, being so wise yourselves;

19. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye [yourselves] are wise.

20. and how you will still go on putting up with a man who enslaves you, eats up all you possess, keeps you under his orders and sets himself above you, or even slaps you in the face.

20. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour [you], if a man take [of you], if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.

21. I say it to your shame; perhaps we have been too weak. Whatever bold claims anyone makes -- now I am talking as a fool -- I can make them too.

21. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.

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

22. Are they Hebrews? so [am] I. Are they Israelites? so [am] I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so [am] I.

23. Are they servants of Christ? I speak in utter folly -- I am too, and more than they are: I have done more work, I have been in prison more, I have been flogged more severely, many times exposed to death.

23. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I [am] more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

24. Five times I have been given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews;

24. Of the Jews five times received I forty [stripes] save one.

25. three times I have been beaten with sticks; once I was stoned; three times I have been shipwrecked, and once I have been in the open sea for a night and a day;

25. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;

26. continually travelling, I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from brigands, in danger from my own people and in danger from the gentiles, in danger in the towns and in danger in the open country, in danger at sea and in danger from people masquerading as brothers;

26. [In] journeyings often, [in] perils of waters, [in] perils of robbers, [in] perils by [mine own] countrymen, [in] perils by the heathen, [in] perils in the city, [in] perils in the wilderness, [in] perils in the sea, [in] perils among false brethren;

27. I have worked with unsparing energy, for many nights without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty, and often altogether without food or drink; I have been cold and lacked clothing.

27. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

28. And, besides all the external things, there is, day in day out, the pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

28. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

29. If anyone weakens, I am weakened as well; and when anyone is made to fall, I burn in agony myself.

29. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?

30. If I have to boast, I will boast of all the ways in which I am weak.

30. If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.

31. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus -- who is for ever to be blessed -- knows that I am not lying.

31. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.

32. When I was in Damascus, the governor who was under King Aretas put guards round Damascus city to catch me,

32. In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:

33. and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and that was how I escaped from his hands.

33. And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.