Acts 10:5-18

5You must send some men to Joppa. They will find a man who is staying there. He is called Simon Peter. Your men must tell him to come here to Caesarea.

6He is staying at the house of Simon the tanner. His house is near the sea.’

7Then the angel who spoke to Cornelius went away. Cornelius told two of his servants and a soldier of his group to come to him. The soldier was one of those who served Cornelius. He was a good man who obeyed God.

8Cornelius explained to these three men what the angel had said to him. Then he sent them to Joppa.

9The next day, at about noon, Cornelius's men were coming near to Joppa. At this time, Peter went up on the roof of the house to pray to God.

10He became hungry and he wanted to eat some food. While someone was preparing a meal for him, Peter had a special dream.

11In a vision, he saw heaven open above him. Then he saw something like a large piece of cloth. Somebody held it at each of its four corners and let it come down to the ground.

12Inside the cloth there were many different kinds of animals with four legs. There were also wild birds and snakes.

13Then Peter heard a voice that said to him, ‘Peter, stand up and kill some of these animals. Then you can cook them and eat the meat.’

14Peter answered, ‘No, Lord, I would certainly not do that. I have never eaten an animal that our Law says is unclean.’

15Then, for the second time, the voice said to Peter, ‘God has made these animals good for people to eat. So you must not say that it is not right to eat them.’

16All this happened three times. After that, the cloth immediately went back up into heaven.

17Just then, Cornelius's men arrived there in Joppa. They found Simon's house. When they stopped at the gate of the house, Peter was still thinking about his dream and what it meant.

18The men shouted out, ‘Is a man called Simon Peter staying here?’