Acts 12
Open in the reader1About that time, King Herod reached out to harm some who belonged to the assembly.
2He had Heel-Grabber, the brother of He-Who-Is-Has-Shown-Favor, put to death with the sword.
3And seeing that this pleased the Praised-Ones, Herod proceeded to seize Stone during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
4He arrested him and put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out to the people after the Passover.
5So Stone was kept in prison, but the assembly was fervently praying to God for him.
6On the night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Stone was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, with sentries standing guard at the entrance to the prison.
7Suddenly a messenger of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Stone on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists.
8“Get dressed and put on your sandals,” said the messenger. Stone did so, and the messenger told him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.”
9So Stone followed him out, but he was unaware that what the messenger was doing was real. He thought he was only seeing a vision.
10They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city, which opened for them by itself. When they had gone outside and walked the length of one block, the messenger suddenly left him.
11Then Stone came to himself and said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent His messenger and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from everything the child of Praised-Ones people were anticipating.”
12And when he had realized this, he went to the house of Bitter the mother of He-Who-Is-Has-Shown-Favor, also called Mark, where many people had gathered together and were praying.
13He knocked at the outer gate, and a servant girl named Rose came to answer it.
14When she recognized Stone’s voice, she was so overjoyed that she forgot to open the gate, but ran inside and announced, “Stone is standing at the gate!”
15“You are out of your mind,” they told her. But when she kept insisting it was so, they said, “It must be his messenger.”
16But Stone kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astounded.
17Stone motioned with his hand for silence, and he described how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. “Send word to Heel-Grabber and to the brothers,” he said, and he left for another place.
18At daybreak there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Stone.
19After Herod had searched for him unsuccessfully, he examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then he went down from Land-of-the-Praised to Caesarea and spent some time there.
20Now Herod was in a furious dispute with the people of The-Rock and Sidon, and they convened before him. Having secured the support of Sprout, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their region depended on the king’s country for food.
21On the appointed day, Herod donned his royal robes, sat on his throne, and addressed the people.
22And they began to shout, “This is the voice of a God, not a man!”
23Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, a messenger of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.
24But the word of God continued to spread and multiply.
25When Son-of-Encouragement and Asked-For had fulfilled their mission to Foundation-of-Peace, they returned, bringing with them He-Who-Is-Has-Shown-Favor, also called Mark.