2He commanded a soldier to cut off the head of the apostle James, the older brother of the apostle John.
3When Herod realized that he had pleased the leaders of the Jewish people by doing that, he commanded soldiers to arrest Peter in order to kill him, too. This happened during the festival when the Jewish people ate bread that did not have yeast.
4After they seized Peter, they put him in prison. They arranged for four groups of soldiers to guard Peter. Each group had four soldiers. Every three hours a different group began to guard him while the others rested. Herod wanted to bring Peter out of prison and judge him in front of the Jewish people after the Passover Festival was finished. He then planned to command soldiers to execute Peter.
5So for several days Peter was kept {they kept Peter} in prison. But the other believers in the congregation at Jerusalem were praying earnestly to God that he would help Peter.
6The night before Herod planned to bring Peter out from prison to have him executed publicly, Peter was sleeping in the prison between two soldiers, with two chains binding his arms to the arms of the soldiers. Two other soldiers were guarding the prison doors.
7Suddenly an angel from the Lord God stood beside Peter, and a bright light shone in his cell. The angel poked Peter in the side and woke him up and said, “Get up quickly!” While Peter was getting up, the chains fell off from his wrists. However, the soldiers were not aware of what was happening.
8Then the angel said to Peter, “Put on your clothes and sandals!” So Peter did. Then the angel said to him, “Fasten your belt/girdle around you(sg) and put on your sandals!” So Peter did that. Then the angel told him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me!”
9So, after Peter put on his cloak and sandals, he followed the angel out of the prison cell, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening. He thought that he was seeing a vision.
Acts 12
Acts 12:2-9