4. “Truly, then, all the Yehuḏim know my way of life from youth, which I led from the beginning among my own nation at Yerushalayim,
5. since they have known me from the first, if they wish to witness, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our observance.
6. “And now I stand and am judged for the expectation of the promise made by Elohim to our fathers,
7. to which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving Elohim night and day, expect to attain. Concerning this expectation, O Sovereign Agrippa, I am accused by the Yehuḏim.
8. “Why is it considered ‘unbelievable’ among you if Elohim raises the dead?
9. “Therefore, indeed, I thought within myself that I ought to do much against the Name of יהושע of Natsareth,
10. which also I did in Yerushalayim, and I shut up many of the set-apart ones in prison, having received authority from the chief priests. And when they were put to death, I gave my vote against them.
11. “And punishing them often in all the congregations, I compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
12. “While thus engaged, as I was journeying to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
13. at midday along the highway, O sovereign, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.
14. “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me, and saying in the Heḇrew language, ‘Sha’ul, Sha’ul, why do you persecute Me? It is hard for you to kick against the prods.’
15. “And I said, ‘Who are You, Master?’ And He said, ‘I am יהושע, whom you persecute.
16. ‘But rise up, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you a servant and a witness both of what you saw and of those which I shall reveal to you,
17. delivering you from the people, and the gentiles, to whom I now send you,
18. to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and the authority of Satan to Elohim, in order for them to receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are set-apart by belief in Me.’
19. “Therefore, Sovereign Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,