⁴After the arrest, he put him in prison and assigned four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. ⁵So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him.

PETER RESCUED

⁶When Herod was about to bring him out for trial, that very night Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison. ⁷Suddenly an angel of the Lord^u appeared, and a light shone in the cell. Striking Peter on the side, he woke him up and said, “Quick, get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists.^v ⁸“Get dressed,” the angel told him, “and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Wrap your cloak around you,” he told him, “and follow me.” ⁹So he went out and followed, and he did not know that what the angel did was really happening, but he thought he was seeing a vision.^w ¹⁰After they passed the first and second guards, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went outside and passed one street, and suddenly the angel left him.^a

¹¹When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from all that the Jewish people expected.”^b

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Cross references

u Lk 1:11; Col 4:1; Jd 5
v Lk 2:9; 5:19; 16:26; 24:4
w Ps 126:1; Ac 9:10
a Ac 5:19; 16:26
b Ps 33:18–19; 34:7; Dn 3:28; 6:22; Lk 15:17; 2Co 1:10