- Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.
- She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved."
- She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
- When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.
- They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar
- by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice."
- The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.
- After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.
- When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
- About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
- Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose.
- The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.
- But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"
- The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.
- He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
- They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household."
- Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
- At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.
- The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.