18. Many of those who had become believers came forward and openly acknowledged their former practices.
19. Moreover, a large number of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in public. They calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand silver pieces.
20. Thus did the word of the Lord continue to spread with influence and power.
21. When this was concluded, Paul made up his mind to travel through Macedonia and Achaia, and then to go on to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must visit Rome also.”
22. Then he sent to Macedonia two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, while he himself stayed for a while in the province of Asia.
23. About that time a serious disturbance broke out concerning the Way.
24. There was a silversmith named Demetrius who made miniature silver shrines of Artemis and provided no little work for the craftsmen.
25. He called a meeting of these and other workers in related crafts and said, “Men, you know well that our prosperity derives from this work.
26. As you can now see and hear, not only in Ephesus but throughout most of the province of Asia this Paul has persuaded and misled a great number of people by saying that gods made by hands are not gods at all.
27. The danger grows, not only that our business will be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be of no account, and that she whom the whole province of Asia and all the world worship will be stripped of her magnificence.”
28. When they heard this, they were filled with fury and began to shout, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
29. The city was filled with confusion, and the people rushed with one accord into the theater, seizing Gaius and Aristarchus, the Macedonians, Paul’s traveling companions.
30. Paul wanted to go before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him,
31. and even some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent word to him advising him not to venture into the theater.
32. Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing, others something else; the assembly was in chaos, and most of the people had no idea why they had come together.