Now the Jewish feast of Passover was near, and many people went up to Jerusalem from the rural areas before the Passover to cleanse themselves ritually.

While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Then Paul went back upstairs, and after he had broken bread and eaten, he talked with them a long time, until dawn. Then he left.

(For they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him previously, and they assumed Paul had brought him into the inner temple courts.)

Then you’re not that Egyptian who started a rebellion and led the four thousand men of the ‘Assassins’ into the wilderness some time ago?”

As I was en route and near Damascus, about noon a very bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me.

He replied, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as if they were going to inquire more thoroughly about him.

“Regarding all the things I have been accused of by the Jews, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate that I am about to make my defense before you today,

about noon along the road, Your Majesty, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining everywhere around me and those traveling with me.

When the fourteenth night had come, while we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected they were approaching some land.

For God, whom I serve in my spirit by preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness that I continually remember you

so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.

So for me, it is a minor matter that I am judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.

I beg you, brothers and sisters, become like me, because I have become like you. You have done me no wrong!

But just as at that time the one born by natural descent persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment,

But now, Jeremiah, today I will set you free from the chains on your wrists. If you would like to come to Babylon with me, come along and I will take care of you. But if you prefer not to come to Babylon with me, you are not required to do so. You are free to go anywhere in the land you want to go. Go wherever you choose.”

Now no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”