¹⁶Once, as we were on our way to prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.^v She made a large profit for her owners by fortune-telling. ¹⁷As she followed Paul and us she cried out, “These men, who are proclaiming to you^A a way of salvation, are the servants of the Most High God.” ¹⁸She did this for many days.

Paul was greatly annoyed. Turning to the spirit, he said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out right away.^w

¹⁹When her owners realized that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas^x and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. ²⁰Bringing them before the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are seriously disturbing our city. They are Jews ²¹and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice.”^y

²²The crowd joined in the attack against them, and the chief magistrates stripped off their clothes and ordered them to be beaten with rods.^z ²³After they had severely flogged them, they threw them in jail, ordering the jailer to guard them carefully. ²⁴Receiving such an order, he put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.^a

Read in Logos

Footnotes

AOther read us

Cross references

v Lv 19:31; Dt 18:11; 1Sm 28:3,7
w Mk 5:7; 16:17
x Mt 10:18; Ac 8:3; 15:22; 17:6–8; 19:25–26; 21:30; Jms 2:6
y Est 3:8; Ac 16:12
z 2Co 6:5; 11:25; 1Th 2:2
a Jb 13:27; 33:11; Jr 20:2–3; 29:26