Acts 16:16–24

Paul and Silas in Prison

¹⁶Now it happened that as we were going to ^athe place of prayer, a servant-girl having ^ba spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling.

¹⁷Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are slaves of ^athe Most High God, who are proclaiming to you ¹the way of salvation.”

¹⁸And she continued doing this for many days. But being greatly annoyed, Paul turned and said to the spirit, “I command you ^ain the name of Jesus Christ to leave her!” And it left at that very ¹moment.

¹⁹But when her masters saw that their hope of ^aprofit had left, they seized ^bPaul and Silas and ^cdragged them into the marketplace before the authorities,

²⁰and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews,

²¹and ^aare proclaiming customs that are not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being ^bRomans.”

²²And the crowd joined together to attack them, and the chief magistrates, tearing their garments off of them, proceeded to order them to be ^abeaten with rods.

²³And when they had inflicted them with many wounds, they threw them into prison, commanding ^athe jailer to guard them securely,

²⁴who, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in ^athe ¹stocks.