When the meeting of the synagogue<n id="1" /> had broken up,<n id="2" /> many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes<n id="3" /> followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading<n id="4" /> them<n id="5" /> to continue<n id="6" /> in the grace of God.p>

Some of them were persuaded<n id="1" /> and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large group<n id="2" /> of God-fearing Greeks<n id="3" /> and quite a few<n id="4" /> prominent women.

And you see and hear that this Paul has persuaded<n id="1" /> and turned away<n id="2" /> a large crowd,<n id="3" /> not only in Ephesus<n id="4" /> but in practically all of the province of Asia,<n id="5" /> by saying<n id="6" /> that gods made by hands are not gods at all.<n id="7" />

For the king knows about these things, and I am speaking freely<n id="1" /> to him,<n id="2" /> because I cannot believe<n id="3" /> that any of these things has escaped his notice,<n id="4" /> for this was not done in a corner.<n id="5" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">But I myself am fully convinced about you, my brothers and sisters,<n id="1" /> that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us,<n id="1" /> so that we would not trust in ourselves<n id="2" /> but in God who raises the dead.

And I wrote this very thing to you,<n id="1" /> so that when I came<n id="2" /> I would not have sadness from those who ought to make me rejoice, since I am confident in you all that my joy would be yours.

I recall<n id="1" /> your sincere faith<n id="2" /> that was alive first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am sure<n id="3" /> is in you.p>

Because of this, in fact, I suffer as I do.<n id="1" /> But I am not ashamed, because I know the one in whom my faith is set<n id="2" /> and I am convinced that he is able to protect what has been entrusted to me<n id="3" /> until that day.<n id="4" />

<p class="bodytext">Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work.<n id="1" /> Let them do this<n id="2" /> with joy and not with complaints, for this would be no advantage for you.

So do not let them persuade you to do this,<n id="1" /> because more than forty of them<n id="2" /> are lying in ambush<n id="3" /> for him. They<n id="4" /> have bound themselves with an oath<n id="5" /> not to eat or drink anything<n id="6" /> until they have killed him, and now they are ready, waiting for you to agree to their request.&#8221;<n id="7" />

<p class="bodytext">They set<n id="1" /> a day to meet with him,<n id="2" /> and they came to him where he was staying<n id="3" /> in even greater numbers.<n id="4" /> From morning until evening he explained things<n id="5" /> to them,<n id="6" /> testifying<n id="7" /> about the kingdom of God<n id="8" /> and trying to convince<n id="9" /> them about Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets.