20. This is why I asked to see you and speak with you: it’s because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain."
21. They responded, "We haven’t received any letters about you from Judea, nor have any of our brothers come and reported or said anything bad about you.
22. But we think it’s important to hear what you think, for we know that people everywhere are speaking against this faction."
23. On the day scheduled for this purpose, many people came to the place where he was staying. From morning until evening, he explained and testified concerning God’s kingdom and tried to convince them about Jesus through appealing to the Law from Moses and the Prophets.
24. Some were persuaded by what he said, but others refused to believe.
25. They disagreed with each other and were starting to leave when Paul made one more statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke correctly when he said to your ancestors through Isaiah the prophet,
26. Go to this people and say: You will hear, to be sure, but never understand; and you will certainly see but never recognize what you are seeing.
27. This people’s senses have become calloused, and they’ve become hard of hearing, and they’ve shut their eyes so that they won’t see with their eyes or hear with their ears or understand with their minds, and change their hearts and lives that I may heal them.