2 Corinthians 11:32

In Damascus Cf. Acts 9:23-25.

the governor Literally, the Ethnarch (ruler of the nation the title of an Oriental provincial governor. See 1Ma 14:47; 1Ma 15:1, &c.).

under Aretas the king Aretas (see Josephus" Antiquities, xviii.) was the king of Arabia Petraea. His daughter had been divorced by Herod Antipas in order that he might marry Herodias, -his brother Philip's wife" (see Matthew 14:3-5). This and some disputes about the frontier led to war being proclaimed, and a battle was fought (a. d. 36) in which Herod's army was entirely destroyed. It is thought by some that Aretas profited by this circumstance to seize on Damascus, and that it was just at this juncture (a. d. 37) that St Paul returned to Damascus from his stay in Arabia. Others, however, place this event about the year 39, after Herod Antipas had been banished to Gaul, and think that Aretas, taken into favour by Caligula, had obtained Damascus, among the various changes which the new Emperor made in the arrangements of his eastern provinces. Aretas seems to have been a common name among the Arabs, like Ptolemy in Egypt, or Seleucus and Antiochus in Syria. Josephus mentions more than one. Cf. also 2Ma 5:8.

kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison Literally, was guarding the city of the Damascenes.