Chapter 20

¹When the confusion was over, Paul sent for the disciples and encouraged them. Then he bade them goodbye and started for Macedonia. ²After traveling through those districts and giving the people a great deal of encouragement, he went on to Greece ³where he stayed for three months. Just as he was going to sail for Syria, the Jews made a plot against him, and he made up his mind to return by way of Macedonia. ⁴He was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, Aristarchus and Secundus, from Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus, from Asia. ⁵They went on to Troas and waited for us there, ⁶while we sailed from Philippi after the festival of Unleavened Bread, and joined them at Troas five days later. There we stayed a week.

⁷On the first day of the week, when we had met for the breaking of bread, Paul addressed them, as he was going away the next morning, and he prolonged his address until midnight. ⁸There were a great many lamps in the upstairs room where we met ⁹and a young man named Eutychus, who was sitting at the window, became very drowsy as Paul’s address grew longer and longer, and finally went fast asleep and fell from the third story to the ground, and was picked up for dead. ¹⁰But Paul went downstairs, and threw himself upon him, and put his arms around him.

“Do not be alarmed,” he said, “he is still alive.”

¹¹Then he went upstairs again, and broke the bread, and ate, and after a long talk with them that lasted until daylight, he went away. ¹²They took the boy home alive, and were greatly comforted.

¹³We had already gone on board the ship and sailed for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there, for that was the arrangement he had made, as he intended to travel there by land. ¹⁴So when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went on to Mitylene. ¹⁵Sailing from there, we arrived off Chios on the following day. On the next we crossed to Samos, and on the next we reached Miletus. ¹⁶For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to lose any time in Asia, for he was hurrying to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of the Harvest Festival.

¹⁷From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. ¹⁸When they came, he said to them,

“You know well enough how I lived among you all the time from the first day I set foot in Asia, ¹⁹and how I served the Lord most humbly and with tears, through all the trials that I encountered because of the plots of the Jews. ²⁰I never shrank from telling you anything that was for your good, nor from teaching you in public or at your houses, ²¹but earnestly urged Greeks as well as Jews to turn to God in repentance and to believe in our Lord Jesus. ²²I am here now on my way to Jerusalem, for the Spirit compels me to go there, though I do not know what will happen to me there, ²³except that in every town I visit, the holy Spirit warns me that imprisonment and persecution are awaiting me. ²⁴But my life does not matter, if I can only finish my race and do the service intrusted to me by the Lord Jesus, of declaring the good news of God’s favor. ²⁵Now I know perfectly well that none of you among whom I went about preaching the Kingdom of God will ever see my face again. ²⁶Therefore I declare to you today that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, ²⁷for I have not shrunk from letting you know God’s purpose without reserve. ²⁸Take care of yourselves and of the whole flock, of which the holy Spirit has made you guardians, and be shepherds of the church of God, which he got at the cost of his own life. ²⁹I know that after I am gone savage wolves will get in among you and will not spare the flock, ³⁰and from your own number men will appear and teach perversions of the truth in order to draw the disciples away after them. ³¹So you must be on your guard and remember that for three years, night and day, I never stopped warning any of you, even with tears. ³²Now I commit you to the Lord, and to the message of his favor, which will build you up and give you a place among those whom God has consecrated. ³³I have never coveted anyone’s gold or silver or clothes. ³⁴You know well enough that these hands of mine provided for my needs and my companions. ³⁵I showed you in every way that by hard work like that we must help those who are weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, for he said, ‘It makes one happier to give than to be given to.’ ”

³⁶With these words, he knelt down with them all and prayed. ³⁷They all wept aloud, and throwing their arms about Paul’s neck they kissed him affectionately, ³⁸for they were especially saddened at his saying that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.