14. We all fell to the ground. I heard a voice speak to me in the Aramaic language. 'Saul! Saul!' it said. 'Why are you opposing me? It is hard for you to go against what you know is right.'
15. "Then I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' " 'I am Jesus,' the Lord replied. 'I am the one you are opposing.
16. Now get up. Stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you to serve me and be my witness. You will tell others that you have seen me today. You will also tell them that I will show myself to you again.
17. " 'I will save you from your own people and from those who aren't Jews. I am sending you to them
18. to open their eyes. I want you to turn them from darkness to light. I want you to turn them from Satan's power to God. I want their sins to be forgiven. They will be forgiven when they believe in me. They will have their place among God's people.'
19. "So then, King Agrippa, I obeyed the vision that appeared from heaven.
20. First I preached to people in Damascus. Then I preached in Jerusalem and in all Judea. I preached also to people who are not Jews. I told them to turn away from their sins to God. The way they live must prove that they have turned away from their sins.
21. That's why the Jews grabbed me in the temple courtyard and tried to kill me.
22. "But God has helped me to this very day. So I stand here and give witness to both small and great. I have been saying nothing different from what the prophets and Moses said would happen.