As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a fiery chariot ¹  pulled by fiery horses appeared. ²  They went between Elijah and Elisha, ³  and Elijah went up to heaven in a windstorm.

Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the local residents ¹  who practice detestable things similar to those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to its language, according to their families, by their nations.

When the Most High ¹  gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided up humankind, ²  he set the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the heavenly assembly. ³ 

Until ¹  certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this ²  and separated himself ³  because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision. ⁴ 

But when we were separated from you, brothers and sisters, ¹  for a short time (in presence, not in affection) ²  we became all the more fervent in our great desire ³  to see you in person. ⁴ 

Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests, together with ¹  Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers, ² 

And tongues spreading out like a fire ¹  appeared to them and came to rest on each one of them.

From Paul, ¹  a slave ²  of Christ Jesus, ³  called to be an apostle, ⁴  set apart for the gospel of God. ⁵ 

They ¹  will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, ² 

So I have said to you: You yourselves will possess their land and I myself will give it to you for a possession, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who has set you apart from the other peoples. ¹ 

After all, ¹  you picked them out of all the nations of the earth to be your special possession, ²  just as you, O sovereign Lord, announced through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. ¹ 

For I could wish ¹  that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, ²  my fellow countrymen, ³ 

But when the one ¹  who set me apart from birth ²  and called me by his grace was pleased

that each of you know how to possess his own body ¹  in holiness and honor,

At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi ¹  to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings ²  in his name, as they do to this very day.

Everyone who did not come within three days would thereby forfeit all his property, in keeping with the counsel of the officials and the elders. Furthermore, he himself would be excluded from the assembly of the exiles.

No foreigner who becomes a follower of ¹  the Lord should say, ‘The Lord will certainly ²  exclude me from his people.’ The eunuch should not say, ‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’”

But when ¹  some were stubborn ²  and refused to believe, reviling ³  the Way ⁴  before the congregation, he left ⁵  them and took the disciples with him, ⁶  addressing ⁷  them every day ⁸  in the lecture hall ⁹  of Tyrannus.