⁷ So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons.

² Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.

²⁰ “Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!”

²¹ So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching.

When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council^[a]—the full assembly of the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial. ²² But when the Temple guards went to the jail, the men were gone. So they returned to the council and reported, ²³ “The jail was securely locked, with the guards standing outside, but when we opened the gates, no one was there!”

²⁴ When the captain of the Temple guard and the leading priests heard this, they were perplexed, wondering where it would all end. ²⁵ Then someone arrived with startling news: “The men you put in jail are standing in the Temple, teaching the people!”

²⁶ The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence, for they were afraid the people would stone them. ²⁷ Then they brought the apostles before the high council, where the high priest confronted them. ²⁸ “We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this man’s name!” he said. “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death!”

²⁹ But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.

¹¹ “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹² And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

²⁶ Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! ²⁷ The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself. ²⁸ But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!”

²⁹ The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

¹⁹ But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him?

³⁷ Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

⁸ But when Jeremiah had finished his message, saying everything the Lord had told him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people at the Temple mobbed him. “Kill him!” they shouted.

⁵ So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the Lord had instructed me.

⁶ A long time afterward the Lord said to me, “Go back to the Euphrates and get the loincloth I told you to hide there.” ⁷ So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling apart. The loincloth was good for nothing.