¹³ Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor^(A) and a violent man, I was shown mercy^(B) because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.^(C)

³ But Saul^(A) began to destroy the church.^(B) Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

⁴ It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened,^(A) who have tasted the heavenly gift,^(B) who have shared in the Holy Spirit,^{(C) 5} who have tasted the goodness^(D) of the word of God^(E) and the powers of the coming age ⁶ and who have fallen^[a] away, to be brought back to repentance.^(F) To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God^(G) all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. ⁷ Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. ⁸ But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed.^(H) In the end it will be burned.

¹³ “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people^(A) in Jerusalem.^(B)

²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.^{(A) 22} Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”^[a](B) and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God;^(A) once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

²⁶ If we deliberately keep on sinning^(A) after we have received the knowledge of the truth,^(B) no sacrifice for sins is left, ²⁷ but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire^(C) that will consume the enemies of God. ²⁸ Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.^{(D) 29} How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God^(E) underfoot,^(F) who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant^(G) that sanctified them,^(H) and who has insulted the Spirit^(I) of grace?^(J)

¹⁶ Let us then approach^(A) God’s throne of grace with confidence,^(B) so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

¹⁷ “Now, fellow Israelites,^(A) I know that you acted in ignorance,^(B) as did your leaders.^(C)