²⁰ Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give us your advice. What should we do?”

The Believers Pray

²³ On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. ²⁴ When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.^(A) “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.^{(B) 25} You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:^(C)

²⁷ Indeed Herod^(E) and Pontius Pilate^(F) met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus,^(G) whom you anointed. ²⁸ They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.^(H)

Judas Hangs Himself

27 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed.^(A)

¹⁰ Come, we must deal shrewdly^(A) with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”^(B)