13. On the sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river where we thought there would be a place of prayer. We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there.
14. One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.
15. After she and her household had been baptized, she offered us an invitation, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home,” and she prevailed on us.
16. As we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl with an oracular spirit, who used to bring a large profit to her owners through her fortune-telling.
17. She began to follow Paul and us, shouting, “These people are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
18. She did this for many days. Paul became annoyed, turned, and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” Then it came out at that moment.
19. When her owners saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the public square before the local authorities.
20. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These people are Jews and are disturbing our city
21. and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us Romans to adopt or practice.”
22. The crowd joined in the attack on them, and the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
23. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely.
24. When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake.
25. About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened,
26. there was suddenly such a severe earthquake that the foundations of the jail shook; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose.