Joshua Sends Spies into Jericho

2 ^(A)Then Joshua sent two spies from the camp at Acacia with orders to go and secretly explore the land of Canaan, especially the city of Jericho. When they came to the city, they went to spend the night in the house of a prostitute named Rahab. ² The king of Jericho heard that some Israelites had come that night to spy out the country, ³ so he sent word to Rahab: “The men in your house have come to spy out the whole country! Bring them out!”

^4-6 “Some men did come to my house,” she answered, “but I don't know where they were from. They left at sundown before the city gate was closed. I didn't find out where they were going, but if you start after them quickly, you can catch them.” (Now Rahab had taken the two spies up on the roof and hidden them under some stalks of flax that she had put there.) ⁷ The king's men left the city, and then the gate was shut. They went looking for the Israelite spies as far as the place where the road crosses the Jordan.

⁸ Before the spies settled down for the night, Rahab went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land. Everyone in the country is terrified of you. ^10 (B)We have heard how the Lord dried up the Red Sea in front of you when you were leaving Egypt. We have also heard how you killed Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan. ¹¹ We were afraid as soon as we heard about it; we have all lost our courage because of you. The Lord your God is God in heaven above and here on earth. ¹² Now swear by him that you will treat my family as kindly as I have treated you, and give me some sign that I can trust you. ¹³ Promise me that you will save my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families! Don't let us be killed!”

¹⁴ The men said to her, “May God take our lives if we don't do as we say!^[a] If you do not tell anyone what we have been doing, we promise you that when the Lord gives us this land, we will treat you well.”

¹⁵ Rahab lived in a house built into the city wall, so she let the men down from the window by a rope. ¹⁶ “Go into the hill country,” she said, “or the king's men will find you. Hide there for three days until they come back. After that, you can go on your way.”

¹⁷ The men said to her, “We will keep the promise that you have made us give. ¹⁸ This is what you must do. When we invade your land, tie this red cord to the window you let us down from. Get your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father's family together in your house. ¹⁹ If anyone goes out of the house, his death will be his own fault, and we will not be responsible; but if anyone in the house with you is harmed, then we will be responsible. ²⁰ However, if you tell anyone what we have been doing, then we will not have to keep our promise which you have made us give you.” ²¹ She agreed and sent them away. When they had gone, she tied the red cord to the window.

²² The spies went into the hills and hid. The king's men looked for them all over the countryside for three days, but they did not find them, so they returned to Jericho. ²³ Then the two spies came down from the hills, crossed the river, and went back to Joshua. They told him everything that had happened, ²⁴ and then said, “We are sure that the Lord has given us the whole country. All the people there are terrified of us.”

God the Supreme King^(A)

Paul in Ephesus

19 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the province and arrived in Ephesus. There he found some disciples ² and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?”

“We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit,” they answered.

³ “Well, then, what kind of baptism did you receive?” Paul asked.

“The baptism of John,” they answered.

^4 (A)Paul said, “The baptism of John was for those who turned from their sins; and he told the people of Israel to believe in the one who was coming after him—that is, in Jesus.”

⁵ When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ Paul placed his hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came upon them; they spoke in strange tongues and also proclaimed God's message. ⁷ They were about twelve men in all.

⁸ Paul went into the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly with the people, holding discussions with them and trying to convince them about the Kingdom of God. ⁹ But some of them were stubborn and would not believe, and before the whole group they said evil things about the Way of the Lord. So Paul left them and took the believers with him, and every day^[a] he held discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This went on for two years, so that all the people who lived in the province of Asia, both Jews and Gentiles, heard the word of the Lord.

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹ God was performing unusual miracles through Paul. ¹² Even handkerchiefs and aprons he had used were taken to the sick, and their diseases were driven away, and the evil spirits would go out of them. ¹³ Some Jews who traveled around and drove out evil spirits also tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus to do this. They said to the evil spirits, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches.” ¹⁴ Seven brothers, who were the sons of a Jewish High Priest named Sceva, were doing this.

¹⁵ But the evil spirit said to them, “I know Jesus, and I know about Paul; but you—who are you?”

¹⁶ The man who had the evil spirit in him attacked them with such violence that he overpowered them all. They ran away from his house, wounded and with their clothes torn off. ¹⁷ All the Jews and Gentiles who lived in Ephesus heard about this; they were all filled with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was given greater honor. ¹⁸ Many of the believers came, publicly admitting and revealing what they had done. ¹⁹ Many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in public. They added up the price of the books, and the total came to fifty thousand silver coins.^{[b] 20} In this powerful way the word of the Lord^[c] kept spreading and growing stronger.

The Riot in Ephesus

²¹ After these things had happened, Paul made up his mind^[d] to travel through Macedonia and Achaia and go on to Jerusalem. “After I go there,” he said, “I must also see Rome.” ²² So he sent Timothy and Erastus, two of his helpers, to Macedonia, while he spent more time in the province of Asia.

²³ It was at this time that there was serious trouble in Ephesus because of the Way of the Lord. ²⁴ A certain silversmith named Demetrius made silver models of the temple of the goddess Artemis, and his business brought a great deal of profit to the workers. ²⁵ So he called them all together with others whose work was like theirs and said to them, “Men, you know that our prosperity comes from this work. ²⁶ Now, you can see and hear for yourselves what this fellow Paul is doing. He says that hand-made gods are not gods at all, and he has succeeded in convincing many people, both here in Ephesus and in nearly the whole province of Asia. ²⁷ There is the danger, then, that this business of ours will get a bad name. Not only that, but there is also the danger that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will come to mean nothing and that her greatness will be destroyed—the goddess worshiped by everyone in Asia and in all the world!”

²⁸ As the crowd heard these words, they became furious and started shouting, “Great is Artemis of Ephesus!” ²⁹ The uproar spread throughout the whole city. The mob grabbed Gaius and Aristarchus, two Macedonians who were traveling with Paul, and rushed with them to the theater. ³⁰ Paul himself wanted to go before the crowd, but the believers would not let him. ³¹ Some of the provincial authorities, who were his friends, also sent him a message begging him not to show himself in the theater. ³² Meanwhile the whole meeting was in an uproar: some people were shouting one thing, others were shouting something else, because most of them did not even know why they had come together. ³³ Some of the people concluded that Alexander was responsible, since the Jews made him go up to the front. Then Alexander motioned with his hand for the people to be silent, and he tried to make a speech of defense. ³⁴ But when they recognized that he was a Jew, they all shouted together the same thing for two hours: “Great is Artemis of Ephesus!”

³⁵ At last the city clerk was able to calm the crowd. “Fellow Ephesians!” he said. “Everyone knows that the city of Ephesus is the keeper of the temple of the great Artemis and of the sacred stone that fell down from heaven. ³⁶ Nobody can deny these things. So then, you must calm down and not do anything reckless. ³⁷ You have brought these men here even though they have not robbed temples or said evil things about our goddess. ³⁸ If Demetrius and his workers have an accusation against anyone, we have the authorities and the regular days for court; charges can be made there. ³⁹ But if there is something more that you want, it will have to be settled in a legal meeting of citizens. ⁴⁰ For after what has happened today, there is the danger that we will be accused of a riot. There is no excuse for all this uproar, and we would not be able to give a good reason for it.” ⁴¹ After saying this, he dismissed the meeting.

To Macedonia and Achaia

20 After the uproar died down, Paul called together the believers and with words of encouragement said good-bye to them. Then he left and went on to Macedonia. ² He went through those regions and encouraged the people with many messages. Then he came to Achaia, ³ where he stayed three months. He was getting ready to go to Syria when he discovered that there were Jews plotting against him; so he decided to go back through Macedonia. ⁴ Sopater son of Pyrrhus, from Berea, went with him; so did Aristarchus and Secundus, from Thessalonica; Gaius, from Derbe; Tychicus and Trophimus, from the province of Asia; and Timothy. ⁵ They went ahead and waited for us in Troas. ⁶ We sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later we joined them in Troas, where we spent a week.

Paul's Last Visit to Troas

⁷ On Saturday^[e] evening we gathered together for the fellowship meal. Paul spoke to the people and kept on speaking until midnight, since he was going to leave the next day. ⁸ Many lamps were burning in the upstairs room where we were meeting. ⁹ A young man named Eutychus was sitting in the window, and as Paul kept on talking, Eutychus got sleepier and sleepier, until he finally went sound asleep and fell from the third story to the ground. When they picked him up, he was dead. ¹⁰ But Paul went down and threw himself on him and hugged him. “Don't worry,” he said, “he is still alive!” ¹¹ Then he went back upstairs, broke bread, and ate. After talking with them for a long time, even until sunrise, Paul left. ¹² They took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

From Troas to Miletus

¹³ We went on ahead to the ship and sailed off to Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had told us to do this, because he was going there by land. ¹⁴ When he met us in Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. ¹⁵ We sailed from there and arrived off Chios the next day. A day later we came to Samos, and the following day we reached Miletus. ¹⁶ Paul had decided to sail on by Ephesus, so as not to lose any time in the province of Asia. He was in a hurry to arrive in Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost, if at all possible.

Paul's Farewell Speech to the Elders of Ephesus

¹⁷ From Miletus Paul sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him. ¹⁸ When they arrived, he said to them, “You know how I spent the whole time I was with you, from the first day I arrived in the province of Asia. ¹⁹ With all humility and many tears I did my work as the Lord's servant during the hard times that came to me because of the plots of some Jews. ²⁰ You know that I did not hold back anything that would be of help to you as I preached and taught in public and in your homes. ²¹ To Jews and Gentiles alike I gave solemn warning that they should turn from their sins to God and believe in our Lord Jesus. ²² And now, in obedience to the Holy Spirit I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. ²³ I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit has warned me that prison and troubles wait for me. ^24 (B)But I reckon my own life to be worth nothing to me; I only want to complete my mission and finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do, which is to declare the Good News about the grace of God.

²⁵ “I have gone about among all of you, preaching the Kingdom of God. And now I know that none of you will ever see me again. ²⁶ So I solemnly declare to you this very day: if any of you should be lost, I am not responsible. ²⁷ For I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God. ²⁸ So keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock which the Holy Spirit has placed in your care. Be shepherds of the church of God,^[f] which he made his own through the blood of his Son.^{[g] 29} I know that after I leave, fierce wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. ³⁰ The time will come when some men from your own group will tell lies to lead the believers away after them. ³¹ Watch, then, and remember that with many tears, day and night, I taught every one of you for three years.

³² “And now I commend you to the care of God and to the message of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the blessings God has for all his people. ³³ I have not wanted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. ³⁴ You yourselves know that I have worked with these hands of mine to provide everything that my companions and I have needed. ³⁵ I have shown you in all things that by working hard in this way we must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, ‘There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.’”

³⁶ When Paul finished, he knelt down with them and prayed. ³⁷ They were all crying as they hugged him and kissed him good-bye. ³⁸ They were especially sad because he had said that they would never see him again. And so they went with him to the ship.

Paul Goes to Jerusalem

21 We said good-bye to them and left. After sailing straight across, we came to Cos; the next day we reached Rhodes, and from there we went on to Patara. ² There we found a ship that was going to Phoenicia, so we went aboard and sailed away. ³ We came to where we could see Cyprus, and then sailed south of it on to Syria. We went ashore at Tyre, where the ship was going to unload its cargo. ⁴ There we found some believers and stayed with them a week. By the power of the Spirit they told Paul not to go to Jerusalem. ⁵ But when our time with them was over, we left and went on our way. All of them, together with their wives and children, went with us out of the city to the beach, where we all knelt and prayed. ⁶ Then we said good-bye to one another, and we went on board the ship while they went back home.

⁷ We continued our voyage, sailing from Tyre to Ptolemais, where we greeted the believers and stayed with them for a day. ^8 (C)On the following day we left and arrived in Caesarea. There we stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven men who had been chosen as helpers in Jerusalem. ⁹ He had four unmarried daughters who proclaimed God's message. ^10 (D)We had been there for several days when a prophet named Agabus arrived from Judea. ¹¹ He came to us, took Paul's belt, tied up his own feet and hands with it, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: The owner of this belt will be tied up in this way by the Jews in Jerusalem, and they will hand him over to the Gentiles.”

¹² When we heard this, we and the others there begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. ¹³ But he answered, “What are you doing, crying like this and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be tied up in Jerusalem but even to die there for the sake of the Lord Jesus.”

¹⁴ We could not convince him, so we gave up and said, “May the Lord's will be done.”

¹⁵ After spending some time there, we got our things ready and left for Jerusalem. ¹⁶ Some of the disciples from Caesarea also went with us and took us to the house of the man we were going to stay with^[h]—Mnason, from Cyprus, who had been a believer since the early days.

Paul Visits James

¹⁷ When we arrived in Jerusalem, the believers welcomed us warmly. ¹⁸ The next day Paul went with us to see James; and all the church elders were present. ¹⁹ Paul greeted them and gave a complete report of everything that God had done among the Gentiles through his work. ²⁰ After hearing him, they all praised God. Then they said, “Brother Paul, you can see how many thousands of Jews have become believers, and how devoted they all are to the Law. ²¹ They have been told that you have been teaching all the Jews who live in Gentile countries to abandon the Law of Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or follow the Jewish customs. ²² They are sure to hear that you have arrived. What should be done, then? ^23 (E)This is what we want you to do. There are four men here who have taken a vow. ²⁴ Go along with them and join them in the ceremony of purification and pay their expenses; then they will be able to shave their heads.^[i] In this way everyone will know that there is no truth in any of the things that they have been told about you, but that you yourself live in accordance with the Law of Moses. ^25 (F)But as for the Gentiles who have become believers, we have sent them a letter telling them we decided that they must not eat any food that has been offered to idols, or any blood, or any animal that has been strangled, and that they must keep themselves from sexual immorality.”

²⁶ So Paul took the men and the next day performed the ceremony of purification with them. Then he went into the Temple and gave notice of how many days it would be until the end of the period of purification, when a sacrifice would be offered for each one of them.

Paul Is Arrested in the Temple

²⁷ But just when the seven days were about to come to an end, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the Temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and grabbed Paul. ²⁸ “People of Israel!” they shouted. “Help! This is the man who goes everywhere teaching everyone against the people of Israel, the Law of Moses, and this Temple. And now he has even brought some Gentiles into the Temple and defiled this holy place!” (^29 (G)They said this because they had seen Trophimus from Ephesus with Paul in the city, and they thought that Paul had taken him into the Temple.)

³⁰ Confusion spread through the whole city, and the people all ran together, grabbed Paul, and dragged him out of the Temple. At once the Temple doors were closed. ³¹ The mob was trying to kill Paul, when a report was sent up to the commander of the Roman troops that all of Jerusalem was rioting. ³² At once the commander took some officers and soldiers and rushed down to the crowd. When the people saw him with the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. ³³ The commander went over to Paul, arrested him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked, “Who is this man, and what has he done?” ³⁴ Some in the crowd shouted one thing, others something else. There was such confusion that the commander could not find out exactly what had happened, so he ordered his men to take Paul up into the fort. ³⁵ They got as far as the steps with him, and then the soldiers had to carry him because the mob was so wild. ³⁶ They were all coming after him and screaming, “Kill him!”

Paul Defends Himself

³⁷ As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the fort, he spoke to the commander: “May I say something to you?”

“You speak Greek, do you?” the commander asked. ³⁸ “Then you are not that Egyptian fellow who some time ago started a revolution and led four thousand armed terrorists out into the desert?”

³⁹ Paul answered, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city. Please let me speak to the people.”

⁴⁰ The commander gave him permission, so Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand for the people to be silent. When they were quiet, Paul spoke to them in Hebrew:

22 “My fellow Jews, listen to me as I make my defense before you!” ² When they heard him speaking to them in Hebrew, they became even quieter; and Paul went on:

^3 (H)“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up here in Jerusalem as a student of Gamaliel. I received strict instruction in the Law of our ancestors and was just as dedicated to God as are all of you who are here today. ^4 (I)I persecuted to the death the people who followed this Way. I arrested men and women and threw them into prison. ⁵ The High Priest and the whole Council can prove that I am telling the truth. I received from them letters written to fellow Jews in Damascus, so I went there to arrest these people and bring them back in chains to Jerusalem to be punished.

Paul Tells of His Conversion^(J)

⁶ “As I was traveling and coming near Damascus, about midday a bright light from the sky flashed suddenly around me. ⁷ I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?’ ⁸ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute,’ he said to me. ⁹ The men with me saw the light, but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. ¹⁰ I asked, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ and the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything that God has determined for you to do.’ ¹¹ I was blind because of the bright light, and so my companions took me by the hand and led me into Damascus.

¹² “In that city was a man named Ananias, a religious man who obeyed our Law and was highly respected by all the Jews living there. ¹³ He came to me, stood by me, and said, ‘Brother Saul, see again!’ At that very moment I saw again and looked at him. ¹⁴ He said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see his righteous Servant, and to hear him speaking with his own voice. ¹⁵ For you will be a witness for him to tell everyone what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ And now, why wait any longer? Get up and be baptized and have your sins washed away by praying to him.’

Paul's Call to Preach to the Gentiles

¹⁷ “I went back to Jerusalem, and while I was praying in the Temple, I had a vision, ¹⁸ in which I saw the Lord, as he said to me, ‘Hurry and leave Jerusalem quickly, because the people here will not accept your witness about me.’ ¹⁹ ‘Lord,’ I answered, ‘they know very well that I went to the synagogues and arrested and beat those who believe in you. ^20 (K)And when your witness Stephen was put to death, I myself was there, approving of his murder and taking care of the cloaks of his murderers.’ ²¹ ‘Go,’ the Lord said to me, ‘for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

²² The people listened to Paul until he said this; but then they started shouting at the top of their voices, “Away with him! Kill him! He's not fit to live!” ²³ They were screaming, waving their clothes, and throwing dust up in the air. ²⁴ The Roman commander ordered his men to take Paul into the fort, and he told them to whip him in order to find out why the Jews were screaming like this against him. ²⁵ But when they had tied him up to be whipped, Paul said to the officer standing there, “Is it lawful for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn't even been tried for any crime?”

²⁶ When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and asked him, “What are you doing? That man is a Roman citizen!”

²⁷ So the commander went to Paul and asked him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”

“Yes,” answered Paul.

²⁸ The commander said, “I became one by paying a large amount of money.”

“But I am one by birth,” Paul answered.

²⁹ At once the men who were going to question Paul drew back from him; and the commander was frightened when he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had put him in chains.

Paul before the Council

³⁰ The commander wanted to find out for sure what the Jews were accusing Paul of; so the next day he had Paul's chains taken off and ordered the chief priests and the whole Council to meet. Then he took Paul and made him stand before them.