Book of Common Prayer

¹⁷ `After I went back to Jerusalem, I was talking to God in the temple one day. Something like a dream came over me.

¹⁸ I heard the Lord say to me, "Leave Jerusalem quickly, right away. The people will not listen to the things you say about me."

¹⁹ And I said, "Lord, they know that I put in prison those who believed in you. I beat them in all the meeting houses.

²⁰ And I stood by and let people kill Stephen. He was one who talked for you. I looked after the clothes of the men who killed him."

²¹ But the Lord said to me, "Go! I will send you far away to the people who are not Jews." '

²² The people listened to Paul until he said that. Then they shouted, `Kill him and get him off the earth. A man like that should not live!'

²³ The people shouted. They waved their clothes about and threw dust in the air.

²⁴ The man in charge of the soldiers ordered Paul to be brought into the army house. He said that he should be beaten hard to make him tell why the people shouted so much at him.

²⁵ When they had tied him with ropes, Paul said to the captain who was standing by, `Is it right for you to beat a man who belongs to Rome without judging his case?'

²⁶ When the captain heard this, he told the commanding officer. He said, `What are you going to do? This man is a Roman!'

²⁷ Then the commanding officer came to Paul and said, `Tell me, are you a Roman?' `Yes, I am,' replied Paul.

²⁸ Then the officer said, `I paid much money to become a Roman.' Paul said, `I was born a Roman.'

²⁹ Then the men who were going to beat him left him. The officer was afraid when he knew Paul was a Roman, because he had tied him up.

11 They came to Bethphage and Bethany, near Jerusalem by the hill called Olives. Then he sent two of his disciples ahead.

² He said, `Go into the village in front of you. As soon as you go in, you will find an animal tied. No one has ever sat on it. Untie it and bring it to me.

³ If anyone asks you, "Why are you doing this?" tell him, "The Lord needs it. He will send it back soon." '

⁴ The disciples went. They found the animal tied outside a door in the street. They untied it.

⁵ People standing there said, `What are you doing, untying the animal?'

⁶ The disciples said what Jesus had told them to say. So they let them go.

⁷ They brought it to Jesus and laid their coats on it. He got on it.

⁸ Many people spread their coats on the road. Others cut leaves and branches from the fields and put them on the road.

⁹ People in front of him and people behind him shouted, `Praise God! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord!

¹⁰ God bless the kingdom of our father David which is coming. Praise him in heaven!'

¹¹ And so Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. He looked at everything. Then he went out with the twelve disciples to Bethany. It was late already.