Moffatt(i)
16 I repeat, no one is to think me a fool; but even so, pray bear with me, fool as I am, that I may have my little boast as well as others!
17 (What I am now going to say is not inspired by the Lord: I am in the role of a 'fool,' now, on this business of boasting.
18 Since many boast on the score of the flesh, I will do the same.)
19 You put up with fools so readily, you who know so much!
20 You put up with a man who assumes control of your souls, with a man who spends your money, with a man who dupes you, with a man who gives himself airs, with a man who flies in your face.
21 I am quite ashamed to say I was not equal to that sort of thing! But let them vaunt as they please, I am equal to them (mind, this is the role of a fool!).
22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Israelites? so am I. Descended from Abraham? so am I.
23 Ministers of Christ? yes perhaps, but not as much as I am (I am mad to talk like this!), with all my labours, with all my lashes, with all my time in prison — a record longer far than theirs. I have been often at the point of death;
24 five times have I got forty lashes (all but one) from the Jews,
25 three times I have been beaten by the Romans, once pelted with stones, three times shipwrecked, adrift at sea for a whole night and day;
26 I have been often on my travels, I have been in danger from rivers and robbers, in danger from Jews and Gentiles, through dangers of town and of desert, through dangers on the sea, through dangers among false brothers —
27 through labour and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, starving many a time, cold and ill-clad, and all the rest of it.
28 And then there is the pressing business of each day, the care of all the churches.
29 Who is weak, and I do not feel his weakness? Whose faith is hurt, and I am not aglow with indignation?
30 If there is to be any boasting, I will boast of what I am weak enough to suffer!