Acts 21:5-25

⁵When the time was up, we left and went back to the ship to continue our journey. All the believers, and wives and children, accompanied us as we left the city. We kneeled down on the beach and prayed, and said our goodbyes.

⁶Then we boarded the ship, and they went back home.

⁷Our voyage from Tyre ended at Ptolemais where we greeted the believers and stayed with them for a day.

⁸The next day we left and went to Caesarea. We stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist (one of the Seven).

⁹Philip had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

¹⁰After we'd stayed there for several days, a prophet called Agabus arrived from Judea.

¹¹Approaching us, he took Paul's belt, and bound his own hands and feet. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘This is how the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt, and will hand him over to the foreigners.’”

¹²When we heard this, we and the believers there pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem.

¹³However, Paul answered, “What are you doing, crying and breaking my heart? I'm ready not only to be bound in Jerusalem, but to die in Jerusalem for the sake of the Lord Jesus.”

¹⁴Since he couldn't be persuaded otherwise we gave up, and said, “May the Lord's will be done.”

¹⁵After this we packed our bags and headed for Jerusalem.

¹⁶Some of the believers from Caesarea came with us, and they took us to the home of Mnason, where we were going to stay. He came from Cyprus and was one of the early believers.

¹⁷When we arrived in Jerusalem, the believers there welcomed us warmly.

¹⁸The next day Paul went with us to see James, and all the church leaders were there.

¹⁹After greeting them, Paul went through in detail everything God had done for the foreigners through his ministry.

²⁰When they heard what had happened they praised God and told Paul, “Brother, you can see how many thousands of Jews have come to trust in the Lord, and they all keep the Law very carefully.

²¹They have been told that you teach Jews living among the foreigners to ignore the Law of Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children and not to follow our customs.

²²So what should we do about it? People will certainly get to hear that you've arrived here.

²³This is what we want you to do: Four men among us have taken a vow.

²⁴Go with them and perform the purification rituals with them, paying for them to have their heads shaved. That way everyone will know there's no truth to the rumors they've heard about you, but that you yourself observe the Law in the way that you live.

²⁵As to the foreigners who have trusted the Lord, we already wrote a letter regarding our decision that they should refrain from eating food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from any animal that is strangled, and from sexual immorality.”