When the governor gestured for him to speak, Paul replied, “Because I know ¹  that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, I confidently make my defense. ² 

But I confess this to you, that I worship ¹  the God of our ancestors ²  according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law ³  and that is written in the prophets.

While ¹  they were staying there many days, Festus ²  explained Paul’s case to the king to get his opinion, ³  saying, “There is a man left here as a prisoner by Felix.

When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ¹  ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself ²  by kicking against the goads.’ ³ 

I have experienced ¹  help from God to this day, and so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except ²  what the prophets and Moses said ³  was going to happen:

“Men, I can see the voyage is going to end ¹  in disaster ²  and great loss not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” ³ 

As day was about to dawn, ¹  Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have been in suspense ²  and have gone ³  without food; you have eaten nothing. ⁴ 

When the local people ¹  saw the creature hanging from Paul’s ²  hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer! Although he has escaped from the sea, Justice herself ³  has not allowed him to live!” ⁴ 

But they were expecting that he was going to swell up ¹  or suddenly drop dead. So after they had waited ²  a long time and had seen ³  nothing unusual happen ⁴  to him, they changed their minds ⁵  and said he was a god. ⁶ 

They replied, ¹  “We have received no letters from Judea about you, nor have any of the brothers come from there ²  and reported or said anything bad about you.

And why not say, “Let us do evil so that good may come of it”? – as some who slander us allege that we say. ¹  (Their ²  condemnation is deserved!)

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under ¹  the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

(I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ¹  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I ¹  would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else ²  if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ³ 

For the scripture says to Pharaoh: ¹  “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” ² 

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” ¹  (that is, the word of faith that we preach),

But I ask, have they ¹  not heard? ²  Yes, they have: ³  Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. ⁴ 

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you ¹  a measure of faith. ² 

To the rest I say – I, not the Lord ¹  – if a brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is happy to live with him, he should not divorce her.