Acts 12:11-20

¹¹Then Peter finally realized that what had happened to him was not a vision, but it had really happened. So he said to himself, “Now I really know that the Lord God sent an angel to help me. He rescued me from what Herod planned to do MTY to me, and also from all the things that the Jewish leaders SYN expected that Herod would do to me.”

¹²When Peter realized that God had rescued him, he went to Mary's house. She was the mother of John whose other name was Mark. Many believers had assembled there, and they were praying that God would help Peter somehow.

¹³When Peter knocked at the outer entrance, a servant girl named Rhoda came to find out who was outside the door.

¹⁴When Peter answered her, she recognized his voice, but she was so happy and excited that she did not open the door! Instead, she ran back into the house. She excitedly announced to the other believers that Peter was standing outside the door.

¹⁵But one of them said to her, “You (sg) are crazy!” But she continued saying that it was really true. Then they repeatedly said, “ No, it cannot be Peter. It is probably the angel who was guarding him who has come (OR, It is the angel who has guarded/protected him, and he has come to tell us that Peter has died.)”

¹⁶But Peter continued knocking on the door. So when someone finally opened the door, they saw that it was Peter, and they were completely amazed!

¹⁷Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet. Then he told them exactly how the Lord God had led him out of the prison. He also said, “Tell James, the leader of our congregation, and our other fellow believers what has happened.” Then Peter left and went away to another town.

¹⁸The next morning the soldiers who had been guarding Peter became terribly distressed, because they did not know what had happened to him.

¹⁹Then Herod heard about it. So he commanded soldiers to search for Peter, but they did not find him. Then he questioned the soldiers who had been guarding Peter, and asked them, “ How did Peter get away when you were there guarding him?” But they could not explain it. So he commanded them to be led away to be executed { other soldiers to lead them away to execute them}. Afterwards, Herod went from Judea province down to Caesarea, where he stayed for some time.

²⁰King Herod had been furiously angry with the people who lived in Tyre and Sidon cities. Then one day some men who represented them came unitedly to Caesarea in order to meet with Herod. They persuaded Blastus, who was one of Herod's important officials, to tell Herod that the people in their cities wanted to make peace with him. They wanted to be able to trade with the people that Herod ruled, because they needed to buy food from those regions. Herod had commanded the people in the areas he ruled to stop selling food to the people in those cities.