In those days ¹  Peter stood up among the believers ²  (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty people) and said,

But God spoke as follows: ‘Your ¹  descendants will be foreigners ²  in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years. ³ 

So Paul stood ¹  before the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious ²  in all respects. ³ 

He gathered ¹  these ²  together, along with the workmen in similar trades, ³  and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity ⁴  comes from this business.

So Agrippa ¹  said to Paul, “You have permission ²  to speak for yourself.” Then Paul held out his hand ³  and began his defense: ⁴ 

But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ¹  ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” ²  (that is, to bring Christ down)

But just as at that time the one born by natural descent ¹  persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, ²  so it is now.

For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,” ¹ 

When I came to the spring today, I prayed, ‘O Lord, God of my master Abraham, if you have decided to make my journey successful, ¹  may events unfold as follows: ² 

When the days of mourning ¹  had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s royal court, ²  “If I have found favor in your sight, please say to Pharaoh, ³ 

He must then put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the cloud of incense will cover the atonement plate which is above the ark of the testimony, ¹  so that he will not die. ² 

Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel: “Be quiet and pay attention, Israel. Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.

Moses proclaimed to all Israel as follows: “You have seen all that the Lord did ¹  in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, all his servants, and his land.

They charged ¹  two-thirds of a shekel ²  to sharpen plowshares and cutting instruments, and a third of a shekel ³  to sharpen picks and axes, and to set ox goads.

What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord’s anger; he finally threw them out of his presence. ¹  Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

And during the reign ¹  of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, ²  Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their colleagues ³  wrote to King Artaxerxes ⁴  of Persia. This letter ⁵  was first written in Aramaic but then translated. [Aramaic:] ⁶ 

Your officials are rebels, ¹  they associate with ²  thieves. All of them love bribery, and look for ³  payoffs. ⁴  They do not take up the cause of the orphan, ⁵  or defend the rights of the widow. ⁶ 

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 I have not pestered you to bring disaster. ¹  I have not desired the time of irreparable devastation. ²  You know that. You are fully aware of every word that I have spoken. ³ 

Say: ‘Listen, O king of Judah who follows in David’s succession. ¹  You, your officials, and your subjects who pass through the gates of this palace must listen to what the Lord says. ²