Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
Serving the Lord, х douleuoon (G1398) too (G3588) Kurioo (G2962)] The word here used (as Alford notes) is employed six times by our apostle, but by no other New Testament writer (though twice it occurs in our Lords expression, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon," Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13).
With all humility of mind, and with [many] tears. The bracketed word "many" х polloon (G4183)] is evidently a later addition ['Aleph (') A B D E wanting it, with the Vulgate, etc., while those which have it are, with the exception of C, and the Peshito Syriac, of inferior weight].
And temptations (or 'trials'), which befell me by the lying in wait (or 'the plots') of the Jews.
Self-exaltation was unknown to him, and ease of mind: He "sowed in tears," from anxieties both on account of the converts for whom he "travailed in birth," and of the Jews, whose bitter hostility was perpetually plotting against him, interrupting his work, and endangering his life.