Acts 12

¹ About that time King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to harm them.

² He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.

³ When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter as well. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

⁴ After arresting him, Herod put him in prison and handed him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. He intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him.

⁶ The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, while sentries stood guard at the door.

⁷ Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, "Quick, get up!" And the chains fell off his wrists.

⁸ Then the angel said to him, "Get dressed and put on your sandals." And Peter did so. "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me," the angel told him.

⁹ Peter followed him out, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.

¹⁰ They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading into the city, which opened for them by itself. They went through it, and after they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

¹¹ Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's grip and from everything the Jewish people were expecting."

¹² When this dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.

¹³ Peter knocked at the outer gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer it.

¹⁴ When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed that instead of opening the gate she ran back inside and announced that Peter was standing outside.

¹⁵ "You're out of your mind," they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true. So they said, "It must be his angel."

¹⁶ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

¹⁷ Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. "Tell James and the other brothers about this," he said, and then he left for another place.

¹⁸ In the morning there was no small commotion among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.

¹⁹ After Herod searched for him and did not find him, he questioned the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then Herod went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.

²⁰ Herod had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon. Now they came to him as a group and, after winning over Blastus, the king's personal servant, they asked for peace, because their region depended on the king's country for its food supply.

²¹ On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to them.

²² They shouted, "This is the voice of a god, not of a man!"

²³ Immediately, because Herod did not give the glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

²⁴ But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.

²⁵ When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark.