Acts 19:30

I will give one tribe to his son, that David my servant may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself to put my name there.

But the people said, “You shall not go out; for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. Therefore now it is better that you are ready to help us out of the city.”

and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

The Lord said to him, “Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judah for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying,

About that time there arose no small disturbance concerning the Way.

“I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are today.

David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your lord’s servants, and pursue after him, lest he get himself fortified cities, and escape out of our sight.”

But the multitude of the city was divided. Part sided with the Jews, and part with the apostles.

Nevertheless for David’s sake, Yahweh his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem;

I will make the horn of David to bud there. I have ordained a lamp for my anointed.

Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, “Please let me go, and I will kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man will know it. Why should he take your life, that all the Jews who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish?”

But some of those who were of the synagogue called “The Libertines”, and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen.

But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul, and blasphemed.

If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.”

He said to them, “I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in. Yahweh has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “Don’t go out with us to battle any more, so that you don’t quench the lamp of Israel.”

For you are my lamp, Yahweh. Yahweh will light up my darkness.

However Yahweh would not destroy Judah, for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give to him a lamp for his children always.

Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck, like the neck of their fathers, who didn’t believe in Yahweh their God.

Abishai, the brother of Joab, he was chief of the three; for he lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three.

Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah struck eighteen thousand of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt.

However Yahweh would not destroy David’s house, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he promised to give a lamp to him and to his children always.

Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to Yahweh, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve Yahweh your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.

but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they were arrogant, and didn’t listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances (which if a man does, he shall live in them), turned their backs, stiffened their neck, and would not hear.

Blessed is the man who hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my door posts.

Those who forsake the law praise the wicked; but those who keep the law contend with them.

He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a stumbling stone and a rock that makes them fall. For the people of Jerusalem, he will be a trap and a snare.

Yet they didn’t listen to me or incline their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.

“Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.’ ”

Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives;’ and, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives;’ they will fall, and never rise up again.”

Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

In that hour Jesus said to the multitudes, “Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to seize me? I sat daily in the temple teaching, and you didn’t arrest me.

for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict.

“He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and would turn, and I would heal them.”

So the detachment, the commanding officer, and the officers of the Jews seized Jesus and bound him,

Therefore many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.

When the brothers knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him off to Tarsus.

Barnabas went out to Tarsus to look for Saul.

When he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they were gathered together with the assembly, and taught many people. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

They wrote these things by their hand: “The apostles, the elders, and the brothers, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: greetings.

He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the assemblies.

But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly without a trial, men who are Romans, and have cast us into prison! Do they now release us secretly? No, most certainly, but let them come themselves and bring us out!”

This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.

He entered into the synagogue and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning God’s Kingdom.

But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.

When he had greeted them, he reported one by one the things which God had worked among the Gentiles through his ministry.

Some shouted one thing, and some another, among the crowd. When he couldn’t find out the truth because of the noise, he commanded him to be brought into the barracks.

As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he asked the commanding officer, “May I speak to you?” He said, “Do you know Greek?

But Paul said, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.”

I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

“This man was seized by the Jews, and was about to be killed by them, when I came with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman.

When the governor had read it, he asked what province he was from. When he understood that he was from Cilicia, he said,

But this I confess to you, that after the Way, which they call a sect, so I serve the God of our fathers, believing all things which are according to the law, and which are written in the prophets;

unless it is for this one thing that I cried standing among them, ‘Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged before you today!’ ”

When we had sailed across the sea which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia.

But we desire to hear from you what you think. For, as concerning this sect, it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against.”

So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn’t obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.

Then I came to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.

constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.

This you know, that all who are in Asia turned away from me, of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.

holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also.

preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all patience and teaching.

don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness,

but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear,

Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.

But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed,

But these speak evil of whatever things they don’t know. They are destroyed in these things that they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason.

Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,