Day 498 of 730

¹Agrippa said to Paul, "You may speak for yourself." Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense.

²"I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you this day concerning all the things that I am accused by the Judeans,

³especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.

⁴"Indeed, all Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem;

⁵having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

⁶Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers,

⁷which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Judeans, O King!

⁸Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?

⁹"I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰This I also did in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.

¹¹Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

¹²"Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests,

¹³at noon, O King, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.

¹⁴When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'

¹⁵"I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' "He said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you;

¹⁷delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you,

¹⁸to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

¹⁹"Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

²¹For this reason Jews seized me in the temple, and tried to kill me.

²²Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said would happen,

²³how the Messiah must suffer, and how, by the resurrection of the dead, he would be first to proclaim light both to these people and to the Gentiles."

²⁴As he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!"

²⁵But he said, "I am not crazy, most excellent Festus, but boldly declare words of truth and reasonableness.

²⁶For the king knows of these things, to whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things is hidden from him, for this has not been done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe."

²⁸Agrippa said to Paul, "With a little persuasion are you trying to make me a Christian?"

²⁹Paul said, "I pray to God, that whether with little or with much, not only you, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these bonds."

³⁰The king rose up with the governor, and Bernice, and those who sat with them.

³¹When they had withdrawn, they spoke one to another, saying, "This man does nothing worthy of death or of bonds."

³²Agrippa said to Festus, "This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar."

¹Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.

²Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King.

³God has shown himself in her citadels as a refuge.

⁴For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together.

⁵They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away.

⁶Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail.

⁷With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish.

⁸As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah.

⁹We have thought about your loving kindness, God, in the midst of your temple.

¹⁰As is your name, God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness.

¹¹Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice, Because of your judgments.

¹²Walk about Zion, and go around her. Number its towers.

¹³Consider her defenses. Consider her palaces, that you may tell it to the next generation.

¹⁴For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death.

¹My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;

²So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

³Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;

⁴If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:

⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

⁷He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity;

⁸that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his holy ones.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

¹²to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things;

¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil;

¹⁵who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths:

¹⁶To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;

¹⁷who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God:

¹⁸for her house leads down to death, her paths to the dead.

¹⁹None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life:

²⁰that you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

²²But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.