1 Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak on your own behalf.” Paul stretched out his hand and defended himself as follows:
2 “King Agrippa! I consider myself fortunate that today I am to defend myself before you from all the things these Jews accuse me of,
3 particularly since you know so well all the Jewish customs and disputes. I ask you, then, to listen to me with patience.
4 “All the Jews know how I have lived ever since I was young. They know how I have spent my whole life, at first in my own country and then in Jerusalem.
5 They have always known, if they are willing to testify, that from the very first I have lived as a member of the strictest party of our religion, the Pharisees.
6 And now I stand here to be tried because of the hope I have in the promise that God made to our ancestors—
7 the very thing that the twelve tribes of our people hope to receive, as they worship God day and night. And it is because of this hope, Your Majesty, that I am being accused by these Jews!