2 Corinthians 11:32

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas wanted to arrest me, so he put guards around the city.

Revised Standard Version
At Damascus, the governor under King Ar'etas guarded the city of Damascus in order to seize me,

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
In ye citie of Damascon the governer of ye people vnder kynge Aretas layde watche in ye citie of the Damasces and wolde have caught me

Hebrew Names Version
In Dammesek the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes desiring to arrest me.

New American Standard Bible
In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me,

New Century Version
When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas wanted to arrest me, so he put guards around the city.

Update Bible Version
In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me:

Webster's Bible Translation
In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:

English Standard Version
At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me,

World English Bible
In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes desiring to arrest me.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
In Damascus the governor under king Aretas, kept the city of the Damascenes with a guard, being determined to apprehend me.

Weymouth's New Testament
In Damascus the governor under King Aretas kept guards at the gates of the city in order to apprehend me,

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The preuost of Damask, of the kyng of the folk Arethe, kepte the citee of Damascenes to take me;

English Revised Version
In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes, in order to take me:

Berean Standard Bible
In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas secured the city of the Damascenes in order to arrest me.

Contemporary English Version
The governor of Damascus at the time of King Aretas had the city gates guarded, so that he could capture me.

Amplified Bible
In Damascus the governor (ethnarch) under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to arrest me,

American Standard Version
In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me:

Bible in Basic English
In Damascus, the ruler under Aretas the king kept watch over the town of the people of Damascus, in order to take me:

Complete Jewish Bible
When I was in Dalmanuta, the governor under King Aretas had the city of Dalmanuta guarded in order to arrest me;

Darby Translation
In Damascus the ethnarch of Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes shut up, wishing to take me;

International Standard Version
In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas put guards around the city of Damascus to catch me,Acts 9:24-25;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
In Darmsuk the great force of Aretos the king kept the city of the Darmsukoyee to apprehend me.

Murdock Translation
At Damascus, the commander of the army of Aretas the king, guarded the city of the Damascenes, to seize me.

King James Version (1611)
In Damascus the gouernour vnder Aretas the King, kept the citie with a garison, desirous to apprehend mee.

New Living Translation
When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas kept guards at the city gates to catch me.

New Life Bible
In the city of Damascus the leader of the people under King Aretas put soldiers at the gates to take me.

New Revised Standard
In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to seize me,

Geneva Bible (1587)
In Damascus the gouernour of the people vnder King Aretas, layde watch in the citie of the Damascens, and would haue caught me.

George Lamsa Translation
At Damascus the general of the army of King Aretas placed the city of the Damascenes under guard, in order to seize me:

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of Damascenes, to apprehend me, -

Douay-Rheims Bible
At Damascus, the governor of the nation under Aretas the king, guarded the city of the Damascenes, to apprehend me.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
In [the citie of] Damascus, Aretas the kynges gouernour of the people, layde watche in the citie of the Damascens, and woulde haue caught me:

Good News Translation
When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas placed guards at the city gates to arrest me.

Christian Standard Bible®
In Damascus, a ruler under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to arrest me.

King James Version
In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:

Lexham English Bible
In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to take me into custody,

Literal Translation
In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes, desiring to seize me.

Young's Literal Translation
In Damascus the ethnarch of Aretas the king was watching the city of the Damascenes, wishing to seize me,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
At Damascon the gouernoure of ye people vnder kynge Aretas, kepte ye cite of the Damascenes, & wolde haue taken me.

Mace New Testament (1729)
in Damascus the governor for king Aretas, posted guards at the city-gates, with a design to apprehend me:

New English Translation
In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to arrest me,

New King James Version
In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me;

Simplified Cowboy Version
When I was in Damascus, the governor posted spies at all the gates so they could find me and arrest me.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me,

Legacy Standard Bible
In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me,

Contextual Overview

²²Pseudo-Servants of God Will you put up with a little foolish aside from me? Please, just for a moment. The thing that has me so upset is that I care about you so much—this is the passion of God burning inside me! I promised your hand in marriage to Christ, presented you as a pure virgin to her husband. And now I'm afraid that exactly as the Snake seduced Eve with his smooth patter, you are being lured away from the simple purity of your love for Christ. It seems that if someone shows up preaching quite another Jesus than we preached—different spirit, different message—you put up with him quite nicely. But if you put up with these big-shot "apostles," why can't you put up with simple me? I'm as good as they are. It's true that I don't have their voice, haven't mastered that smooth eloquence that impresses you so much. But when I do open my mouth, I at least know what I'm talking about. We haven't kept anything back. We let you in on everything. I wonder, did I make a bad mistake in proclaiming God's Message to you without asking for something in return, serving you free of charge so that you wouldn't be inconvenienced by me? It turns out that the other churches paid my way so that you could have a free ride. Not once during the time I lived among you did anyone have to lift a finger to help me out. My needs were always supplied by the believers from Macedonia province. I was careful never to be a burden to you, and I never will be, you can count on it. With Christ as my witness, it's a point of honor with me, and I'm not going to keep it quiet just to protect you from what the neighbors will think. It's not that I don't love you; God knows I do. I'm just trying to keep things open and honest between us. And I'm not changing my position on this. I'd die before taking your money. I'm giving nobody grounds for lumping me in with those money-grubbing "preachers," vaunting themselves as something special. They're a sorry bunch—pseudo-apostles, lying preachers, crooked workers—posing as Christ's agents but sham to the core. And no wonder! Satan does it all the time, dressing up as a beautiful angel of light. So it shouldn't surprise us when his servants masquerade as servants of God. But they're not getting by with anything. They'll pay for it in the end. Let me come back to where I started—and don't hold it against me if I continue to sound a little foolish. Or if you'd rather, just accept that I am a fool and let me rant on a little. I didn't learn this kind of talk from Christ. Oh, no, it's a bad habit I picked up from the three-ring preachers that are so popular these days. Since you sit there in the judgment seat observing all these shenanigans, you can afford to humor an occasional fool who happens along. You have such admirable tolerance for impostors who rob your freedom, rip you off, steal you blind, put you down—even slap your face! I shouldn't admit it to you, but our stomachs aren't strong enough to tolerate that kind of stuff. Since you admire the egomaniacs of the pulpit so much (remember, this is your old friend, the fool, talking), let me try my hand at it. Do they brag of being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham? I'm their match. Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can't believe I'm saying these things. It's crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I'm going to finish.) ²³I've worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death's door time after time. I've been flogged five times with the Jews' thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I've been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I've been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I've known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. ²⁸And that's not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut. ³⁰If I have to "brag" about myself, I'll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus. The eternal and blessed God and Father of our Master Jesus knows I'm not lying. Remember the time I was in Damascus and the governor of King Aretas posted guards at the city gates to arrest me? I crawled through a window in the wall, was let down in a basket, and had to run for my life.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Damascus: 2 Corinthians 11:26, Acts 9:24, Acts 9:25

Aretas: This Aretas was an Arabian king, and the father-in-law of Herod Antipas, upon whom he made war in consequence of his having divorced his daughter. Herod applied to Tiberius for help, who sent Vitellius to reduce Aretas, and to bring him alive or dead to Rome. By some means or other Vitellius delayed his operations, and in the mean time Tiberius died; and it is probable that Aretas, who was thus snatched from ruin, availed himself of the favourable state of things, and seized on Damascus, which had belonged to his ancestors.

Reciprocal: Judges 16:2 - compassed 1 Samuel 19:12 - let David 1 Chronicles 18:13 - garrisons Psalms 59:1 - when Jeremiah 49:23 - Damascus Acts 23:21 - for Galatians 1:17 - returned

Gill's Notes on the Bible

In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king,.... Aretas or Al-Hareth was a king of Arabia, of the family of the Gassanii; among whom were many of this name r; and who for some hundreds of years ruled over Syria, of which Damascus was the metropolis. The fourth king of that family was of this name, and perhaps is the person here meant; and after him there were four more of the same family so called; it was a name of Arabian kings in other families. The fifteenth king of the Yamanensians was of this name, and so was the "seventeenth" of the Hirensians s, and the "third" of the kings of Cenda; in the times of Antiochus Epiphanes, there was an Aretas king of the Arabians, mentioned in the Apocrypha t.

"In the end therefore he had an unhappy return, being accused before Aretas the king of the Arabians, fleeing from city to city, pursued of all men, hated as a forsaker of the laws, and being had in abomination as an open enemy of his country and countrymen, he was cast out into Egypt.'' (2 Maccabees 5:8)

Josephus u also makes mention of Aretas king of the Arabians, who seems to have been king of Arabia Petraea, since his royal seat was at Petra, to whom Hyrcanus fled by the advice of Antipater, the father of Herod the great; and there was also one of this name in the times of Herod himself, who succeeded Obodas w; yea, there was an Aretas king of Petraea, in the times of Herod the tetrarch, whose daughter Herod married, and put her away when he took Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, which occasioned a quarrel between him and Aretas, which issued in a battle, in which Herod was beaten x; and who is thought to be the same king which is here spoken of: the name Aretas or Al-Hareth, as Hillerus y, observes, signifies the lion; and a lion with the eastern nations was a symbol of royalty and dominion; hence such names were given to persons of illustrious birth and power; so Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet, was called by the Arabs and Persians the lion of God: now Syria, where Damascus was, and which is called by Pliny z Damascus of Syria, had been of long time in the hands of the kings of Arabia; and a Josephus makes mention of Aretas, king of Coele Syria, who was called to the government by those who had Damascus in their hands; very probably by Milesius, who was governor of the tower of Damascus, and commanded των

δαμασκηνων την πολιν, "the city of the Damascenes", as Josephus calls Damascus, just as it is here in the next clause; in which country of Coele Syria, Ptolomy b also places Damascus; and Grotius has proved from Justin Martyr c and Terlullian d, that Damascus formerly belonged to Arabia, though in their times it was reckoned to Syro Phoenicia: here the apostle preached to the confounding of the Jews that dwelt there, which provoked them to enter into a consultation to take away his life; and that he might not escape their hands, they moved to the then governor who was under the king, that the gates might be watched day and night; see Acts 9:23 to which he agreed; and as the apostle here says,

kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, or set a guard about it; or as the Arabic version reads it, "he shut up the city"; and placed a watch at the gates of it night and day, or allowed the Jews to do so:

desirous to apprehend me; in order to deliver him into their hands, who were now his sworn enemies for the Gospel's sake; willing to do them this favour to ingratiate himself into their affections; or perhaps it might be insinuated to him, that he was a seditious person.

r Pocock. Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 76, 77, 78. s Pocock. ib. p. 58, 70, 79. t Vid. Joseph. Antiqu. l. 13. c. 13. sect. 3. u Antiqu. l. 14. c. 1. sect. 4. de Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 2. w Joseph. Antiqu. l. 16. c. 9. sect. 4. & c. 10. sect. 8, 9. x Ib. Antiqu. l. 18. c. 6. sect. 1. y Onomasticum Sacrum, p. 116, 748. z Nat. Hist. l. 36. c. 8. a Antiqu. l. 13. c. 15. sect. 1, 2. b Geograph. l. 5. c. 15. c Dialog. cum Tryphone Jud. p. 305. d Adv. Marcion. l. 3. c. 13.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In Damascus - This circumstance is mentioned as an additional trial. It is evidently mentioned as an instance of peril which had escaped his recollection in the rapid account of his dangers enumerated in the previous verses. It is designed to show what imminent danger he was in, and how narrowly he escaped with his life. On the situation of Damascus, see the note, Acts 9:2. The transaction here referred to is also related by Luke Acts 9:24-25, though without mentioning the name of the king, or referring to the fact that the governor kept the city with a garrison.

The governor - Greek, ὁ ἐθνάρχης ho ethnarchēs, “The ethnarch;” properly a ruler of the people, a prefect, a ruler, a chief. Who he was is unknown, though he was evidently some officer under the king. It is not improbable that he was a Jew, or at any rate he was one who could be influenced by the Jews, and he was doubtless excited by the Jews to guard the city, and if possible to take Paul as a malefactor. Luke informs us Acts 9:23-24 that the Jews took counsel against Paul to kill him, and that they watched the gates night and day to effect their object. They doubtless represented Paul as an apostate, and as aiming to overthrow their religion. He had come with an important commission to Damascus and had failed to execute it; he had become the open friend of those whom he came to destroy; and they doubtless claimed of the civil authorities of Damascus that he should be given up and taken to Jerusalem for trial. It was not difficult, therefore, to secure the cooperation of the governor of the city in the case, and there is no improbability in the statement.

Under Aretas the king - There were three kings of this name who are particularly mentioned by ancient writers. The first is mentioned in 2 Macc. 5:8, as the “king of the Arabians.” He lived about 170 years before Christ, and of course could not be the one referred to here. The second is mentioned in Josephus, Antiquities 13, xv, section 2. He is first mentioned as having reigned in Coele-Syria, but as being called to the government of Damascus by those who dwelt there, on account of the hatred which they bore to Ptolemy Meneus. Whiston remarks in a note on Josephus, that this was the first king of the Arabians who took Damascus and reigned there, and that this name afterward became common to such Arabian kings as reigned at Damascus and at Petra; see Josephus, Antiquities 16, ix, section 4. Of course this king reigned some time before the transaction here referred to by Paul. A third king of this name, says Rosenmuller, is the one mentioned here. He was the father-in-law of Herod Antipas. He made war with his son-in-law Herod because he had repudiated his daughter, the wife of Herod. This he had done in order to marry his brother Philip’s wife; see the note, Matthew 14:3. On this account Aretas made war with Herod, and in order to resist him, Herod applied to Tiberius the Roman emperor for aid. Vitellius was sent by Tiberius to subdue Aretas, and to bring him dead or alive to Rome. But before Vitellius had embarked in the enterprise, Tiberius died, and thus Aretas was saved from ruin. It is supposed that in this state of things, when thus waging war with Herod, he made an incursion to Syria and seized upon Damascus, where he was reigning when Paul went there; or if not reigning there personally, he had appointed an ethnarch or governor who administered the affairs of the city in his place.

Kept the city ... - Luke Acts 9:24 says that they watched the gates day and night to kill him. This was probably the Jews. Meantime the ethnarch guarded the city, to prevent his escape. The Jews would have killed him at once; the ethnarch wished to apprehend him and bring him to trial. In either case Paul had much to fear, and he, therefore, embraced the only way of escape.

With a garrison - The word which is used here in the original (φρουρέω phroureō) means simply to watch; to guard; to keep. Our translation would seem to imply that there was a body of people stationed in order to guard the city. The true idea is, that there were men who were appointed to guard the gates of the city and to keep watch lest he should escape them. Damascus was surrounded, as all ancient cities were, with high walls, and it did not occur to them that he could escape in any other way than by the gates.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 32. In Damascus the governor under Aretas — For a description of Damascus see the note on "Acts 9:2". And for the transaction to which the apostle refers see Acts 9:23. As to King Aretas, there were three of this name. The first is mentioned 2 Maccab. v. 8. The second by Josephus, Antiq. l. xiii. c. 15, sec. 2; and l. xvi. c. 1, sec. 4. The third, who is the person supposed to be referred to here, was the father-in-law of Herod Antipas, of whom see the notes, "Acts 9:23", c.

But it is a question of some importance, How could Damascus, a city of Syria, be under the government of an Arabian king? It may be accounted for thus: Herod Antipas, who married the daughter of Aretas, divorced her, in order to marry Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Aretas, on this indignity offered to his family, made war upon Herod. Herod applied to Tiberius for help, and the emperor sent Vitellius to reduce Aretas, and to bring him alive or dead to Rome. By some means or other Vitellius delayed his operations, and in the meantime Tiberius died and thus Aretas was snatched from ruin, Joseph., Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 5. What Aretas did in the interim is not known; but it is conjectured that he availed himself of the then favourable state of things, made an irruption into Syria, and seized on Damascus. See Rosenmuller; and see the introduction to this epistle, sec. ii.

The governor — εθναρχης. Who this ethnarch was, we cannot tell. The word ethnarch signifies the governor of a province, under a king or emperor.

Desirous to apprehend me — The enemies of the apostle might have represented him to the governor as a dangerous spy, employed by the Romans.