Acts 16:17-27

¹⁷This girl, following after Paul and us, was crying out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”

¹⁸And this she did for many days. But Paul, being greatly annoyed and turning around, said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out in that very hour.

¹⁹And when her masters saw that the hope of their profit was gone, they took Paul and Silas, and dragged them to the marketplace before the rulers.

²⁰And bringing them to the magistrates they said, “These men, being Jews, are agitating our city;

²¹and they are proclaiming customs which are not lawful for us to receive or to do, since we are Romans.”

²²And the crowd rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore their clothes and ordered men to beat them with rods.

²³And when they laid many strokes on them, they cast them into prison, commanding the prison keeper to keep them securely;

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

²⁵Now about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and all the bonds were loosed.

²⁷And becoming awake, the prison keeper, seeing the doors of the prison open, drawing a sword, he was about to kill himself, supposing the prisoners to have escaped.