12 So it was one time travelling to Damascus carrying permission letters from the chief priests 13 that in the middle of the day, oh king, I saw a bright light from the sky—even brighter than the sun—and it shone on me and my companions. 14 All of us fell down to the ground and I heard a voice speaking to me in Hebrew saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Life will be difficult for you if resist me.” 15 “Who are you, master?” I asked.

And the master responded, “I am Yeshua, the one you’re persecuting. 16 Now get up, because I let you see me in order to appoint you as my servant and my witness—to tell the people what you’ve seen and what you will be shown. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the non-Jews that I’m sending you out to, 18 to open their minds and for them to turn back from darkness to light and from Satan’s power to God, so that they can be forgiven for their sins and receive an inheritance among the ones who’ve been made guiltless by their faith in me.”