³⁰ Paul wished to go into the crowd, but the disciples would not let him;

³⁹ Paul replied, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city; I beg you, let me speak to the people.”^(A)

²² Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. ²³ For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,^{(A) 25} nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.^{(B) 26} From one ancestor^[a] he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,^{(C) 27} so that they would search for God^[b] and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.^{(D) 28} For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

²⁹ “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.^{(F) 30} While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,^{(G) 31} because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”^(H)

¹⁴ When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, ¹⁵ “People,^[a] why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.^{(A) 16} In past generations he allowed all peoples to follow their own ways,^{(B) 17} yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good, giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.”^{(C) 18} Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

¹⁷ But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, “You shall not go out with us to battle any longer, so that you do not quench the lamp of Israel.”^(A)

² And David sent forth the army: one third under the command of Joab; one third under the command of Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother; and one third under the command of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the men, “I myself will also go out with you.”^{(A) 3} But the men said, “You shall not go out. For if we flee, they will not care about us. If half of us die, they will not care about us. But you are worth ten thousand of us;^[a] therefore it is better that you send us help from the city.”^(B)