“Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”
King James Version (KJV)
4:17 The preaching - The gospel which we preach.
2Ti 4:17 The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me. He had a better helper than man. He had an assurance that the Lord was with him. That by me . . . all the Gentiles might hear. The Lord strengthened him, so that in his defense he could proclaim to the Gentiles boldly the principles of the gospel. For the manner in which he was wont to defend himself, see in his famous speeches before Felix (Ac 11-21), Festus (Ac 25:8,10,11), and Agrippa (Ac 26:2-30). I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. Probably a proverbial expression indicating deliverance from great danger. Some have thought it meant that he was delivered from being thrown to the lions.