1. Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You may now speak on your own behalf.” So Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense.
2. “I count myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am to defend myself before you today against all the charges made against me by the Jews,
3. especially since you are an expert in all the Jewish customs and controversies. And therefore I beg you to listen patiently.
4. My manner of living from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my people and in Jerusalem, all [the] Jews know.
5. They have known about me from the start, if they are willing to testify, that I have lived my life as a Pharisee, the strictest party of our religion.
6. But now I am standing trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors.
7. Our twelve tribes hope to attain to that promise as they fervently worship God day and night; and on account of this hope I am accused by Jews, O king.
8. Why is it thought unbelievable among you that God raises the dead?
9. I myself once thought that I had to do many things against the name of Jesus the Nazorean,
10. and I did so in Jerusalem. I imprisoned many of the holy ones with the authorization I received from the chief priests, and when they were to be put to death I cast my vote against them.
11. Many times, in synagogue after synagogue, I punished them in an attempt to force them to blaspheme; I was so enraged against them that I pursued them even to foreign cities.
12. “On one such occasion I was traveling to Damascus with the authorization and commission of the chief priests.
13. At midday, along the way, O king, I saw a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my traveling companions.
14. We all fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.’
15. And I said, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.