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.
27. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew [his] sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped.
28. But Paul shouted out in a loud voice, “Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.”
29. He asked for a light and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.
30. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31. And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved.”
32. So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house.
33. He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized at once.
34. He brought them up into his house and provided a meal and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God.
35. But when it was day, the magistrates sent the lictors with the order, “Release those men.”