Acts 22:15-26

¹⁵He wants you to tell people everywhere what you have seen and heard from him.

¹⁶So now ◄do not delay!/why delay?► RHQ Stand up, let me baptize you, and by praying to the Lord Jesus ask God to forgive you (sg) for your sins!’”

¹⁷“Later, I returned to Jerusalem. One day I went to the Temple courtyard. While I was praying there, I saw a vision in which

¹⁸I saw the Lord speaking to me. He said to me, ‘ Do not stay here! Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not ◄believe/listen to► what you (sg) tell them about me!’

¹⁹But I protested and said to him, ‘Lord, they know that I went to many of our meeting houses looking for people who believe in you. I was putting in jail those whom I found who believed in you, and I was even beating them.

²⁰They remember that when Stephen was killed MTY {when people killed MTY Stephen} because he told people about you, I stood there watching it all and approving what they were doing. I even guarded the outer garments that those who were murdering him had thrown aside. So if I stay here, the fact that I have changed how I think about you will surely impress those leaders of our people.’

²¹But the Lord said to me, ‘No, do not stay here! Leave Jerusalem, because I am going to send you (sg) far away from here to non-Jewish people!’”

²²The people listened quietly to what Paul was saying until he mentioned the Lord sending him to non-Jewish people. Then they began shouting angrily, “Kill him! He does not deserve to live any longer!” They said that because they could not believe that God would save anyone except Jews.

²³While they continued shouting, “Kill him!” they took off their cloaks and threw dust into the air, which showed how angry they were.

²⁴So the commander commanded that Paul be taken { soldiers to take Paul} into the barracks. He told the soldiers that they should strike Paul with a whip that had pieces of bone/metal on the end of it, in order to make him tell what he had done that made the Jews shout so angrily. So the soldiers took Paul into the barracks.

²⁵Then they stretched his arms out and tied them so that they could whip him on his back. But Paul said to the officer who was standing nearby watching, “ You(sg) should think carefully about this! You will certainly be RHQ acting unlawfully if you whip me, a Roman citizen whom no one has put on trial and condemned!”

²⁶When the officer heard that, he went to the commander and reported it to him. He said to the commander, “This man is a Roman citizen ◄Surely you would not command us to whip him!/Do you really want us to whip him?► RHQ”