Acts 12:13-25 ▼

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

14 On recognizing Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed that she didn't open the gate but ran back inside and announced that Peter was standing at the gate.

15 The other people told her, |You're out of your mind!| But she kept insisting that it was so. Then they said, |It's his angel.|

16 Meanwhile, Peter kept on knocking and knocking. When they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed.

17 He motioned to them with his hand to be quiet, and then he told them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. He added, |Tell this to James and the brothers.| Then he left and went somewhere else.

18 When morning came, there was a great commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.

19 Herod searched for him but didn't find him, so he questioned the guards and ordered them to be executed. Then he left Judea, went down to Caesarea, and stayed there for a while.

20 Now Herod had been in a violent quarrel with the people of Tyre and Sidon. So they came to him as a group. After they had won over Blastus, who oversaw security for the king's sleeping quarters, they asked for a peace agreement because their country depended on the king's country for food.

21 Therefore, at a set time Herod put on his royal robes, sat down on the royal seat, and made a speech to them.

22 The people kept shouting, |This is the voice of a god, not of a man!|

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

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

25 When Barnabas and Saul had fulfilled their mission, they returned to Jerusalem, bringing with them John who was also called Mark.