1 I would that you could bear with me in a little folly. But indeed, you are bearing with me.
2 For I am jealous for you with a jealousy according to Elohim. For I gave you in marriage to one husband, to present you as an innocent maiden to Mashiaḥ.
3 But I am afraid, lest, as the serpent deceived Ḥawwah by his trickery, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Mashiaḥ.
4 For, indeed, if he who is coming proclaims another 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤔𐤏, whom we have not proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different Good News which you have not accepted, you put up with it well enough!
5 For I reckon that I am not inferior to the most eminent emissaries.
6 But even if I am unskilled in word, yet not in knowledge. Indeed, in every way we have been manifested among you in all.
7 Or did I commit sin in humbling myself in order to exalt you, because I brought good news, the Good News of Elohim to you without being paid?
8 Other assemblies I robbed, by receiving wages to serve you.
9 And when I was present with you, and in need, I was not a burden to anyone, for what was lacking to me the brothers who came from Makedonia supplied. And in every way I kept myself – and shall keep – from being a burden to you.
10 It is a truth of Mashiaḥ in me, that this boasting in me shall not be stopped in the districts of Aḵaia.
11 Why? Is it that I do not love you? Elohim knows!
12 And I shall go on doing as I do, in order to cut off the occasion from those desiring an occasion, so that in that which they boast, they might be found also as we are.
13 For such are false emissaries, deceptive workers, masquerading as emissaries of Mashiaḥ.
14 And no wonder! For Satan himself masquerades as a messenger of light!
15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works!
16 Again I say, let no one think me to be a fool. And if otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, for me to also boast a little.
17 What I speak, I speak not according to the Aḏon, but as in foolishness, in this boldness of boasting.
18 Since many boast according to the flesh, I too shall boast.
19 For you, being wise, put up with fools gladly!
20 For you put up with it if anyone enslaves you, if anyone devours you, if anyone takes from you, if anyone exalts himself, if one hits you in the face.
21 To shame, I say that we were too weak for that! But in whatever anyone is bold – I say it in foolishness – I am bold also.
22 Are they Iḇrim? So am I. Are they Yisra’ĕlites? So am I. Are they the seed of Aḇraham? So am I.
23 Are they servants of Mashiaḥ? – I speak as beside myself – I am more, in labours much more, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths many times.
24 Five times I received from the Yahuḏim forty stripes less one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have been in the deep,
26 in many travels, in dangers of waters, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my own race, in dangers from the gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the desert, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among false brothers;
27 in toil and hardship, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness,
28 besides that from outside, what comes upon me daily: the anxiety for all the assemblies.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?
30 If I have to boast, I shall boast of matters that show up my weakness.
31 The Elohim and Father of our Aḏon 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤔𐤏 ha’Mashiaḥ, who is baruḵ forever, knows that I am not lying.
32 In Dammeseq the governor, under Aretas the sovereign, was guarding the city of the Damascenes, wanting to seize me,
33 but through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped from his hands.