12. “So I went to Damascus with authority and a commission from the chief priests.
13. At midday, O King, I saw along the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.
14. When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
15. “I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’“He said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
16. But rise and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness both of what you have seen and of what I will yet reveal to you.
17. I will deliver you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I now send you,
18. to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’
19. “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,
20. but declared first to those at Damascus, then at Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do works proving their repentance.
21. For these reasons the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.