Acts 9:1

Don’t say, “I will pay back evil.” Wait for Yahweh, and he will save you.

“Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you,

Now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

The saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.

He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Saul was consenting to his death. A great persecution arose against the assembly which was in Jerusalem in that day. They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles.

When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him.’

For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I don’t know about.

Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies.

If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them.

His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. A bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.

He has made my mouth like a sharp sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. He has made me a polished shaft. He has kept me close in his quiver.

He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth.

The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those who are bound,

But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you.

They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff.

but he who didn’t know, and did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes. To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked.

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Dividing his garments among them, they cast lots.

But Saul ravaged the assembly, entering into every house and dragged both men and women off to prison.

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

“I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

I also did this in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.

For most certainly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know.

Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;

However, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might display all his patience for an example of those who were going to believe in him for eternal life.

For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.

The hands of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing,

You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust also in him, and he will do this:

and they found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward,

Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Having said this, he breathed his last.

Joses, who by the apostles was also called Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, Son of Encouragement), a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race,

and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.

All who heard him were amazed, and said, “Isn’t this he who in Jerusalem made havoc of those who called on this name? And he had come here intending to bring them bound before the chief priests!”

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

I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for I am in no way inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing.

I was still unknown by face to the assemblies of Judea which were in Christ,

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith,

so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your perseverance and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.

partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so.

As her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.

The children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day destroyed twenty-two thousand of the Israelite men down to the ground.

Benjamin went out against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men. All these drew the sword.

Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.

The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

“In those days and at that time, I will cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David. He will execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he did to your saints at Jerusalem.

Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers with many words and strengthened them.

He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;

Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty.

“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he will devour the prey. At evening he will divide the plunder.”

Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before Yahweh’s ark.”

but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.

Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. Dust will be the serpent’s food. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” says Yahweh.

They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Now in the assembly that was at Antioch there were some prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue those who believed in you.

Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God.

For you have heard of my way of living in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God and ravaged it.

concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.

For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews

although I used to be a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent. However, I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

When he was cursed, he didn’t curse back. When he suffered, he didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.