5 The High Priest and the whole Council can prove that I am telling the truth. I received from them letters written to fellow-Jews in Damascus, so I went there to arrest these people and bring them back in chains to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 “As I was travelling and coming near Damascus, about midday a bright light from the sky flashed suddenly round me.
7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?’
8 ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute,’ he said to me.
9 The men with me saw the light, but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.
10 I asked, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ and the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything that God has determined for you to do.’
11 I was blind because of the bright light, and so my companions took me by the hand and led me into Damascus.