In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Parallel translations
- WEB in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
- BSB in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.
- NKJV in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—
- NASB I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
- NLT I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul adds hardships of exhausting labor, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, and exposure to cold. It matters because his ministry meant ongoing physical deprivation, not comfort or gain.
Overview
Beyond dramatic dangers, Paul bore the daily grind of toil and want, sometimes self-imposed through fasting and sometimes forced by circumstance. Often he worked with his own hands to avoid burdening the churches (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:9). Such voluntary hardship for the sake of others mirrors the self-emptying love of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- 2 Cor 6:5In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;
- Phil 4:12I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
- 1 Th 2:9For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.
- 2 Th 3:8Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
- 1 Cor 4:11–12Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;
- Rom 8:35–36Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
- Acts 14:23And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
- Acts 13:2–3As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
- Acts 20:34–35Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
- 2 Cor 11:23Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
- Jas 2:15–16If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
- Jer 38:9My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city.
- Heb 11:37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
- 1 Cor 7:5Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
- Acts 20:31Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
- Acts 20:5–11These going before tarried for us at Troas.
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Christ at the center
In Christ all God's promises are 'Yes and Amen'; though rich, he became poor to make us rich, and in him God reconciles the world, making us new creations.
How 2 Corinthians 11:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.