⁸ “But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”^{(A) 9} I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it.^{(B) 10} He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

3 He said to me, “O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”^{(C) 2} So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. ³ He said to me, “Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.^(D)

⁴ He said to me, “Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them. ⁵ For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language but to the house of Israel, ⁶ not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.^{(E) 7} But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me, because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.^{(F) 8} See, I have made your face hard against their faces and your forehead hard against their foreheads. ⁹ Like the hardest stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.”^{(G) 10} He said to me, “Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; ¹¹ then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”^(H)

Paul’s Sufferings as an Apostle

¹⁶ I repeat, let no one think that I am a fool, but if you do, then accept me as a fool, so that I, too, may boast a little. ¹⁷ What I am saying in regard to this boastful undertaking, I am saying not with the Lord’s authority but as a fool;^{(A) 18} since many boast according to human standards,^[a] I will also boast. ¹⁹ For you gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves! ²⁰ For you put up with it when someone makes slaves of you or preys upon you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or gives you a slap in the face. ²¹ To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that!

But whatever anyone dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that.^{(B) 22} Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.^{(C) 23} Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman—I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death.^{(D) 24} Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.^{(E) 25} Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea;^{(F) 26} on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters;^{(G) 27} in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food,^[b] cold and naked.^{(H) 28} And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?^(I)

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.^{(J) 31} The God and Father of the Lord Jesus (blessed be he forever!) knows that I do not lie.^{(K) 32} In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to^[c] seize me,^{(L) 33} but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall^[d] and escaped from his hands.