you on the face.

(21)I say it as a reproach, that we were weak. But in whatever any one
is bold (I say it in foolishness), I also am bold. (22)Are they
Hebrews? So am I Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's
seed? So am I. (23)Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as beside
myself,) I am more; in labors more abundantly, in stripes above
measure, in prisons more abundantly, in deaths often; (24)of the Jews
five times I received forty stripes save one; (25)thrice I was beaten
with rods; once I was stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and
a day I have spent in the deep; (26)by journeyings often, by perils of
rivers, by perils of robbers, by perils from my countrymen, by perils
from the heathen, by perils in the city, by perils in the wilderness,
by perils in the sea, by perils among false brethren; (27)by weariness
and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings
often, in cold and nakedness. (28)Beside those things that are
without, there is that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the
churches. (29)Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I
do not burn? (30)If I must needs boast, I will boast of things which
belong to my infirmity. (31)God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is blessed forevermore, knows that I lie not. (32)In Damascus, the
governor under Aretas the king kept guard over the city of the
Damascenes, wishing to apprehend me; (33)and through a window I was
let down in a basket through the wall, and escaped his hands.

XII.

TO boast is surely not expedient for me; for I will come to visions
and revelations of the Lord.

(2)I know a man in Christ, above fourteen years ago (whether in the
body I know not, or whether out of the body I know not, God knows)
such a one caught up even to the third heaven. (3)And I know such a
man (whether in the body or without the body I know not, God knows),
(4)that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words,
which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

(5)Of such a one I will boast; but of myself I will not boast, save in
my infirmities. (6)For if I should desire to boast, I shall not be
foolish, for I shall speak truth; but I forbear, lest any one should
reckon of me above what he sees me to be, or hears from me.

(7)And that I might not be exalted overmuch through the abundance of
the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a
messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I m