I protected them while I was with them by [the power of] your name which you gave me. [See verse 11]. I guarded them so that not one of them was lost except the "son of destruction" [i.e., Judas]. [This was] so that the Scripture would be fulfilled [Psa. 41:9 ?].

I often persecuted them in the synagogues, [even] trying to get them to blaspheme [i.e., speak against God]. I had extreme anger toward them and [even] traveled to foreign cities [in my effort] to persecute them.