⁹ “I too was convinced^(A) that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose^(B) the name of Jesus of Nazareth.^{(C) 10} And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people^(D) in prison,^(E) and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.^{(F) 11} Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished,^(G) and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.

¹² “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. ¹³ About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. ¹⁴ We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice^(H) saying to me in Aramaic,^[a](I) ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵ “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

“ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ¹⁶ ‘Now get up and stand on your feet.^(J) I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.^{(K) 17} I will rescue you^(L) from your own people and from the Gentiles.^(M) I am sending you to them ¹⁸ to open their eyes^(N) and turn them from darkness to light,^(O) and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins^(P) and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’^(Q)

¹⁹ “So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient^(R) to the vision from heaven.