9 “So then, aI thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to bthe name of Jesus of Nazareth.

10 “And this is 1just what I adid in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the 2saints in prisons, having breceived authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I ccast my vote against them.

11 “And aas I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being bfuriously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them ceven to 1foreign cities.

12 “1While so engaged aas I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,

13 at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, 1brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me.

14 “And when we had aall fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the 1bHebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? 2It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

15 “And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

16 ‘But get up and astand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to bappoint you a cminister and da witness not only to the things which you have 1seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you;

17 arescuing you bfrom the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,

18 to aopen their eyes so that they may turn from bdarkness to light and from the dominion of cSatan to God, that they may receive dforgiveness of sins and an einheritance among those who have been sanctified by ffaith in Me.’