²⁹ So the crowd who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “^(A)An angel has spoken to Him!”

⁶ “^(A)But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus at about noon, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, ⁷ and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ ⁸ And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am ^(B)Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’ ⁹ And those who were with me ^(C)saw the light, but ^(D)did not ^[a]understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me. ¹⁰ And I said, ‘^(E)What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything that has been appointed for you to do.’ ¹¹ But since I ^(F)could not see because of the ^[b]brightness of that light, I came into Damascus being led by the hand by those who were with me.

¹² “Now a certain ^(G)Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law and ^(H)well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, ¹³ came to me, and standing nearby he said to me, ‘^(I)Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And ^[c](J)at that very moment I looked up at him. ¹⁴ And he said, ‘^(K)The God of our fathers has ^(L)appointed you to know His will and to ^(M)see the ^(N)Righteous One and to hear a ^[d]message from His mouth. ¹⁵ For you will be ^(O)a witness for Him to all people of ^(P)what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ Now why do you delay? ^(Q)Get up and be baptized, and ^(R)wash away your sins by ^(S)calling on His name.’

¹⁷ “It happened when I ^(T)returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I ^(U)fell into a trance, ¹⁸ and I saw Him saying to me, ‘^(V)Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’ ¹⁹ And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another ^(W)I used to imprison and ^(X)beat those who believed in You. ²⁰ And ^(Y)when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing nearby and approving, and watching over the cloaks of those who were killing him.’ ²¹ And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away ^(Z)to the Gentiles.’”

²² They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “^(AA)Away with such a man from the earth, for ^(AB)he should not be allowed to live!” ²³ And as they were shouting and ^(AC)throwing off their cloaks and ^(AD)tossing dust into the air, ²⁴ the commander ordered that he be brought into ^(AE)the barracks, saying that he was to be ^(AF)interrogated by flogging so that he would find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way. ²⁵ But when they stretched him out ^[e]with straps, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it ^[f]lawful for you to flog ^(AG)a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” ²⁶ When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, saying, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.” ²⁷ The commander came and said to ^[g]Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.” ²⁸ The commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship for a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.” ²⁹ Therefore, those who were about to ^(AH)interrogate him immediately backed away from him; and the commander also ^(AI)was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had ^[h](AJ)put him in chains.

³⁰ Now on the next day, ^(AK)wanting to know for certain why Paul had been accused by the Jews, he ^(AL)released him and ordered the chief priests and all ^(AM)the ^[i]Council to assemble, and he brought Paul down and placed him before them.