Acts 16

¹And he came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman, but of a Greek father;

²who was well spoken of by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium.

³Paul wanted this one to go out with him, and having taken him, he circumcised him on account of the Jews who were in those places; for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴And as they traveled through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decrees that had been decided by the apostles and the elders who were in Jerusalem.

⁵So then the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number every day.

⁶And they passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

⁷And having come to Mysia, they were attempting to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

⁸And having passed through Mysia, they came down to Troas.

⁹And a vision appeared to Paul during the night: a certain Macedonian man was standing and beseeching him and saying, 'Come over into Macedonia and help us.'

¹⁰And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go out into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

¹¹And having put out to sea from Troas, we made a straight course to Samothrace, and on the following day to Neapolis,

¹²and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of that district of Macedonia, a Roman colony. And we were staying in this city some days.

¹³And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate beside a river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and having sat down, we began to speak to the women who had gathered.

¹⁴And a certain woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, was listening; the Lord opened her heart to attend to the things being spoken by Paul.

¹⁵And when she was baptized, and her household, she urged us, saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and remain.' And she prevailed upon us.

¹⁶Now it happened, as we were going to the place of prayer, that a certain slave girl having a spirit of Python met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune-telling.

¹⁷She, following after Paul and us, kept crying out, saying, 'These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.'

¹⁸And this she kept doing for many days. But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour.

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

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

²¹and they advocate customs that are not lawful for us to accept or to practice, since we are Romans.

²²And the crowd rose up together against them, and the magistrates, having torn off their garments, were commanding to beat them with rods.

²³And having inflicted many blows on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them securely.

²⁴Who, having received such an order, threw 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 the chains of all were loosed.

²⁷And when the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors standing open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

²⁸But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying, 'Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.'

²⁹And calling for lights, he rushed in and, becoming terrified, fell down before Paul and Silas,

³⁰And having brought them outside, he said, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'

³¹And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.

³²And they spoke the word of the Lord to him, together with all those in his house.

³³And taking them along at that hour of the night, he washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, he himself and all his household.

³⁴And having brought them up into his house, he set a table before them, and rejoiced greatly with his whole household, having come to believe in God.

³⁵And when day came, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, Release those men.

³⁶And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, 'The magistrates have sent orders that you be released; now therefore come out and go in peace.'

³⁷But Paul said to them, 'They beat us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Romans, and threw us into prison; and now do they cast us out secretly? No indeed! Rather let them come themselves and bring us out.'

³⁸And the officers reported these words to the magistrates. And they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans,

³⁹And they came and appealed to them, and after bringing them out, they kept asking them to leave the city.

⁴⁰And having gone out of the prison, they came to Lydia, and when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.