I will save you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them

我也要救你脱离百姓和外邦人的手。

我也要救你脱离百姓和外邦人的手。我差你到他们那里去，

我也要救你脱离百姓和外邦人的手。我差你到他们那里去，

我将把你从你的同胞和外族人手中救出来。我差遣你到他们那里，

我要救你脱离这人民和外族人，差遣你到他们那里去，

我要从以色列子民和外邦人当中把你救出来。我差派你到他们那里去，

我也要救你脫離百姓和外邦人的手。

我也要救你脫離百姓和外邦人的手。我差你到他們那裏去，

我也要救你脫離百姓和外邦人的手。我差你到他們那裏去，

我將把你從你的同胞和外族人手中救出來。我差遣你到他們那裡，

我要救你脫離這人民和外族人，差遣你到他們那裡去，

我要從這人民中、從外國人中、選拔你，差遣你到他們那裏、

我要從以色列子民和外邦人當中把你救出來。我差派你到他們那裡去，

我將拯爾於斯民、及異邦中、

今我遣爾至以色列民、及異邦有害汝者、吾拯爾、

今我遣爾往就斯民、並異邦人、必拯爾脫其害、

予之拔汝於眾民萬邦者、

I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them

delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles— to whom I am sending you

And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles

I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them

rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,

I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you,

delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee,

I will rescue you from the people and from the Gentiles. I now send you to them

Delivering thee from the people, and[ from] the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,

I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you

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

But the Lord said to Ananias,“ Go! I have chosen this man to work for me. He will announce my name to the Gentiles and to their kings. He will also announce my name to the people of Israel.

They will fight against you. But they will not win the battle over you. I am with you. I will save you,” announces the Lord.

I was appointed to be a messenger and an apostle to preach the good news. I am telling the truth. I’m not lying. God appointed me to be a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

I am talking to you who are not Jews. I am the apostle to the Gentiles. So I take pride in the work I do for God and others.

Do not be afraid of the people I send you to. I am with you. I will save you,” announces the Lord.

The first time I was put on trial, no one came to help me. Everyone deserted me. I hope they will be forgiven for it.The Lord stood at my side. He gave me the strength to preach the whole message. Then all the Gentiles heard it. I was saved from the lion’s mouth.

Right away the believers sent Paul to the coast. But Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea.

James, Peter and John are respected as pillars in the church. They recognized the special grace given to me. So they shook my hand and the hand of Barnabas. They wanted to show they accepted us. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles. They would go to the Jews.

Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium. They won the crowd over to their side. They threw stones at Paul. They thought he was dead, so they dragged him out of the city.The believers gathered around Paul. Then he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

I am with you. No one will attack you and harm you. I have many people in this city.”

At that time Gallio was governor of Achaia. The Jews of Corinth got together and attacked Paul. They brought him into court.They made a charge against Paul. They said,“ This man is talking people into worshiping God in wrong ways. Those ways are against the law.”Paul was about to give reasons for his actions. But just then Gallio spoke to them. He said,“ You Jews don’t claim that Paul has committed a great or small crime. If you did, it would make sense for me to listen to you.But this is about your own law. It is a question of words and names. Settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.”So he made them leave.

Are they serving Christ? I am serving him even more. I’m out of my mind to talk like this! I have worked much harder. I have been in prison more often. I have suffered terrible beatings. Again and again I almost died.Five times the Jews gave me 39 strokes with a whip.Three times I was beaten with sticks. Once they tried to kill me by throwing stones at me. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.I have had to keep on the move. I have been in danger from rivers. I have been in danger from robbers. I have been in danger from my fellow Jews and in danger from Gentiles. I have been in danger in the city, in the country, and at sea. I have been in danger from people who pretended they were believers.

“ Then the Lord said to me,‘ Go. I will send you far away to people who are not Jews.’ ”The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they shouted,“ Kill him! He isn’t fit to live!”

He talked and argued with the Greek Jews. But they tried to kill him.The other believers heard about this. They took Saul down to Caesarea. From there they sent him off to Tarsus.

But Festus wanted to do the Jews a favor. So he said to Paul,“ Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem? Are you willing to go on trial there? Are you willing to face these charges in my court?”Paul answered,“ I’m already standing in Caesar’s court. This is where I should go on trial. I haven’t done anything wrong to the Jews. You yourself know that very well.If I am guilty of anything worthy of death, I’m willing to die. But the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true. No one has the right to hand me over to them. I make my appeal to Caesar!”

Cry out,“ Save us, God our Savior. Save us. Bring us back from among the nations. Then we will give thanks to you, because your name is holy. We will celebrate by praising you.”

I was appointed to announce the good news. I was appointed to be an apostle and a teacher.

Those who are evil hide and wait for godly people. They want to kill them.But the Lord will not leave the godly in their power. He will not let them be found guilty when they are brought into court.

I now serve the good news because God gave me his grace. His power is at work in me.I am by far the least important of all the Lord’s holy people. But he gave me the grace to preach to the Gentiles about the unlimited riches that Christ gives.

The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners. They wanted to keep them from swimming away and escaping.But the commander wanted to save Paul’s life. So he kept the soldiers from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and swim to land.The rest were supposed to get there on boards or other pieces of the ship. That is how everyone reached land safely.

The people arguing were getting out of control. The commanding officer was afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. So he ordered the soldiers to go down and take him away from them by force. The officer had told them to bring Paul into the fort.The next night the Lord stood near Paul. He said,“ Be brave! You have told people about me in Jerusalem. You must do the same in Rome.”The next morning some Jews gathered secretly to make plans against Paul. They made a promise to themselves. They promised that they would not eat or drink anything until they killed him.More than 40 men took part in this plan.They went to the chief priests and the elders. They said,“ We have made a special promise to God. We will not eat anything until we have killed Paul.Now then, you and the Sanhedrin must make an appeal to the commanding officer. Ask him to bring Paul to you. Pretend you want more facts about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here.”But Paul’s nephew heard about this plan. So he went into the fort and told Paul.Then Paul called one of the commanders. He said to him,“ Take this young man to the commanding officer. He has something to tell him.”So the commander took Paul’s nephew to the officer. The commander said,“ Paul, the prisoner, sent for me. He asked me to bring this young man to you. The young man has something to tell you.”The commanding officer took the young man by the hand. He spoke to him in private.“ What do you want to tell me?” the officer asked.He said,“ Some Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul to the Sanhedrin tomorrow. They will pretend they want more facts about him.Don’t give in to them. More than 40 of them are waiting in hiding to attack him. They have promised that they will not eat or drink anything until they have killed him. They are ready now. All they need is for you to bring Paul to the Sanhedrin.”The commanding officer let the young man go. But he gave him a warning.“ Don’t tell anyone you have reported this to me,” he said.Then the commanding officer called for two of his commanders. He ordered them,“ Gather a company of 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen and 200 men armed with spears. Get them ready to go to Caesarea at nine o’clock tonight.Provide horses for Paul so that he may be taken safely to Governor Felix.”

When they heard this, they became very angry. They began shouting,“ Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”Soon people were making trouble in the whole city. They all rushed into the theater. They dragged Gaius and Aristarchus along with them. These two men had come with Paul from Macedonia.Paul wanted to appear in front of the crowd. But the believers wouldn’t let him.Some of the officials in Asia Minor were friends of Paul. They sent him a message, begging him not to go into the theater.The crowd didn’t know what was going on. Some were shouting one thing and some another. Most of the people didn’t even know why they were there.The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander to the front. They tried to tell him what to say. But he motioned for them to be quiet. He was about to give the people reasons for his actions.But then they realized that he was a Jew. So they all shouted the same thing for about two hours.“ Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” they yelled.The city clerk quieted the crowd down.“ People of Ephesus!” he said.“ The city of Ephesus guards the temple of the great Artemis. The whole world knows this. They know that Ephesus guards her statue, which fell from heaven.These facts can’t be questioned. So calm down. Don’t do anything foolish.These men haven’t robbed any temples. They haven’t said evil things against our female god. But you have brought them here anyhow.Demetrius and the other skilled workers may feel they have been wronged by someone. Let them bring charges. The courts are open. We have our governors.Is there anything else you want to bring up? Settle it in a court of law.As it is, we are in danger of being charged with a crime. We could be charged with causing all this trouble today. There is no reason for it. So we wouldn’t be able to explain what has happened.”After he said this, he sent the people away.

to serve Christ Jesus among the Gentiles. I have the duty of a priest to preach God’s good news. Then the Gentiles will become an offering that pleases God. The Holy Spirit will make the offering holy.

The person who does what is right may have many troubles. But the Lord saves him from all of them.

We are pushed hard from all sides. But we are not beaten down. We are bewildered. But that doesn’t make us lose hope.Others make us suffer. But God does not desert us. We are knocked down. But we are not knocked out.We always carry around the death of Jesus in our bodies. In that way, the life of Jesus can be shown in our bodies.

“ Fellow Israelites, help us!” they shouted.“ This is the man who teaches everyone in all places against our people. He speaks against our law and against this holy place. Besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple. He has made this holy place‘ unclean.’ ”They said this because they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul. They thought Paul had brought him into the temple.The whole city was stirred up. People came running from all directions. They grabbed Paul and dragged him out of the temple. Right away the temple gates were shut.The people were trying to kill Paul. But news reached the commander of the Roman troops. He heard that people were making trouble in the whole city of Jerusalem.Right away he took some officers and soldiers with him. They ran down to the crowd. The people causing the trouble saw the commander and his soldiers. So they stopped beating Paul.The commander came up and arrested Paul. He ordered him to be held with two chains. Then he asked who Paul was and what he had done.Some in the crowd shouted one thing, some another. But the commander couldn’t get the facts because of all the noise. So he ordered that Paul be taken into the fort.Paul reached the steps. But then the mob became so wild that he had to be carried by the soldiers.The crowd that followed kept shouting,“ Get rid of him!”

They tried very hard to get Festus to have Paul taken to Jerusalem. They asked for this as a favor. They were planning to hide and attack Paul along the way. They wanted to kill him.

So they came and said they were sorry. They led them out of the prison. Then they asked them to leave the city.

You know that I was treated badly. You know that I suffered greatly. You know what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. You know how badly I have been treated. But the Lord saved me from all my troubles.

“ Here is what I want you to know. God has sent his salvation to the Gentiles. And they will listen!”

But the Jewish leaders stirred up the important women who worshiped God. They also stirred up the men who were leaders in the city. The Jewish leaders tried to get the women and men to attack Paul and Barnabas. They threw Paul and Barnabas out of that area.

Jews and Gentiles alike planned to treat Paul and Barnabas badly. Their leaders agreed. They planned to kill them by throwing stones at them.But Paul and Barnabas found out about the plan. They escaped to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding area.

As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue.

After many days, the Jews had a meeting. They planned to kill Saul.But he learned about their plan. Day and night they watched the city gates closely in order to kill him.But his followers helped him escape by night. They lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the hard times we had in Asia Minor. We were having a lot of trouble. It was far more than we could stand. We even thought we were going to die.In fact, we felt as if we were under the sentence of death. But that happened so that we would not depend on ourselves but on God. He raises the dead to life.God has saved us from deadly dangers. And he will continue to do it. We have put our hope in him. He will continue to save us.