Text -- 2 Corinthians 11:27-33 (NET)

11:27 in hard work and toil, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, many times without food, in cold and without enough clothing. 11:28 Apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxious concern for all the churches. 11:29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not burn with indignation? 11:30 If I must boast, I will boast about the things that show my weakness. 11:31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows I am not lying. 11:32 In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to arrest me, 11:33 but I was let down in a rope-basket through a window in the city wall, and escaped his hands.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Co 11:27

¹ tn The two different words for labor are translated “in hard work and toil” by L&N 42.48.

² tn Grk “in cold and nakedness.” Paul does not mean complete nakedness, however, which would have been repugnant to a Jew; he refers instead to the lack of sufficient clothing, especially in cold weather. A related word is used to 1 Cor 4:11, also in combination with experiencing hunger and thirst.

NET Notes: 2Co 11:28

¹ sn Apart from other things. Paul refers here either (1) to the external sufferings just mentioned, or (2) he refers to other things he has left unmentioned.

² tn “Anxious concern,” so translated in L&N 25.224.

NET Notes: 2Co 11:29

¹ tn Or “who is caused to stumble.”

NET Notes: 2Co 11:30

¹ tn Grk “If boasting is necessary.”

² tn Or “about the things related to my weakness.”

NET Notes: 2Co 11:32

¹ tn Grk “ethnarch.”

sn The governor was an official called an ethnarch who was appointed to rule over a particular area or constituency on behalf of a king.

² tn Grk “the city of the Damascenes.”

³ tn Or “to seize,” “to catch.”

NET Notes: 2Co 11:33

¹ tn In Acts 9:25 the same basket used in Paul’s escape is called a σπυρίς (spuri"), a basket larger than a κόφινος (kofinos). It was very likely made out of rope, so the translation “rope-basket” is used.