Peter Is Rescued

⁶ Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, ^(A)bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. ⁷ And behold, ^(B)an angel of the Lord ^(C)stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. ^(D)He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And ^(E)the chains fell off his hands. ⁸ And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and ^(F)put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” ⁹ And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but ^(G)thought he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰ When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. ^(H)It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. ¹¹ When Peter ^(I)came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that ^(J)the Lord has sent his angel and ^(K)rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

¹² When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of ^(L)John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and ^(M)were praying. ¹³ And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, ^(N)a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴ Recognizing Peter's voice, ^(O)in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. ¹⁵ They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is ^(P)his angel!” ¹⁶ But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. ¹⁷ But ^(Q)motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to ^(R)James and to ^(S)the brothers.”^[a] Then he departed and went to another place.

¹⁸ Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. ¹⁹ And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ^(T)ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.