1 When the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples and encouraged them. Then he bade them goodbye and started off for Macedonia.
2 He passed through those districts and by continuing to talk to them encouraged the people. He then went on to Greece
3 where he stayed three months. Just as he was about to sail for Syria, he changed his mind and returned by way of Macedonia, because a plot against him had been laid by the Jews.
4 He had as companions Sopater, the son of Pyrrhus, from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.
5 They went on to Troas and waited there for us,
6 while we, after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, sailed from Philippi, and five days after joined them at Troas, where we spent a week.
7 On the first day of the week when we had met to break bread, Paul addressed them, since he was leaving the next day, and prolonged his speech till midnight.
8 There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we met,
9 and a young man named Eutychus, who was sitting by the window, was gradually overcome by heavy drowsiness, as Paul kept speaking longer and longer, and at last he went fast asleep and fell from the third story to the ground and was picked up dead.
10 But Paul went down and fell on him and embraced him, and said, "Stop being alarmed, his life is still in him."
11 So he went back upstairs, and broke the bread and ate with them, and after talking with them extendedly, even till daylight, he left them.
12 Then they took the boy home alive, and were greatly comforted.
13 We had already gone on board the ship and set sail for Assos, where we were to take Paul on board; for it had been so arranged by him, as he intended to travel there on foot.
14 So when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and sailed on to Mitylene.
15 On the next day we sailed from there and arrived off Chios. On the next day we crossed to Samos, and the next we reached Miletus.
16 For Paul's plan was to sail past Ephesus, so as not to lose any time in the province of Asia; for he was eager, if possible, to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost.
17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.
18 When they arrived, he said to them: "You know how I lived among you all the time from the day I first set foot in the province of Asia, and how I continued
19 to serve the Lord with all humility and in tears, through the trials that befell me because of the plots of the Jews.
20 I never shrank from telling you anything that was for your good, nor from teaching you in public and in private,
21 but constantly and earnestly I urged Greeks as well as Jews to turn with repentance to God and to have faith in our Lord Jesus.
22 And I am here now on my way to Jerusalem, because I am impelled by the Spirit to do so, though I am not aware what will befall me there,
23 except that in town after town the Holy Spirit emphatically assures me that imprisonment and sufferings are awaiting me.
24 But now I count as nothing the sacrifice of my life, if only I can finish my race and render the service entrusted to me by the Lord Jesus, of faithfully telling the good news of God's favor.
25 And now I know that none of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will ever see my face again.
26 I therefore protest to you today that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,
27 for I never shrank from telling you God's whole plan.
28 Take care of yourselves and of the whole flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, so as to continue to be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood.
29 Because I know that after I have gone violent wolves will break in among you and will not spare the flock.
30 Even from your own number men will appear who will try, by speaking perversions of truth, to draw away the disciples after them.
31 So ever be on your guard and always remember that for three years, night and day, I never ceased warning you one by one, and that with tears.
32 And now I commit you to the Lord, and to the message of His favor, which is able to build you up and to give you your proper possession among all God's consecrated people.
33 I have never coveted any man's silver or gold or clothes.
34 You know yourselves that these hands of mine provided for my own needs and for my companions.
35 In everything I showed you that by working hard like this we must help those who are weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It makes one happier to give than to get.'"
36 After he had finished this speech, he fell on his knees with them all and prayed.
37 There was loud weeping by them all, as they threw their arms around Paul's neck and kept on kissing him with affection,
38 (44:37) because they were especially pained at his saying that they would never see his face again. Then they went down to the ship with him.