2 Corinthians 12:7

To keep Paul from pride over such revelations, God allowed a painful 'thorn in the flesh,' a messenger of Satan, to torment him. It matters because God can use even Satan's affliction to humble and protect his servants.

Cross-references · 20

• Num 33:55“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let remain of them will be as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the land in which you dwell.
• Judg 2:3Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’”
• 2 Chr 32:25–26But Hezekiah didn’t reciprocate appropriate to the benefit done for him, because his heart was lifted up. Therefore there was wrath on him, and on Judah and Jerusalem.
• Gen 32:31The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh.
• Gal 4:13but you know that because of weakness of the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time.
• 1 Cor 5:5are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
• Dan 5:20But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:
• Job 2:7So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.
• 2 Chr 26:16But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into Yahweh’s temple to burn incense on the altar of incense.
• 1 Tim 3:6not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.
• Deut 8:14then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;
• Gen 32:25When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained, as he wrestled.
• Ezek 28:24There shall be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them, that scorned them; and they shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.
• 2 Cor 10:5throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;
• Deut 17:20that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left; to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the middle of Israel.
• 2 Chr 32:31However concerning the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.
• 2 Cor 11:20For you bear with a man, if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, if he strikes you on the face.
• 1 Cor 4:11Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place.
• Luke 13:16Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound eighteen long years, be freed from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”
• Matt 26:67Then they spit in his face and beat him with their fists, and some slapped him,

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.