Acts 16:15-33

15And when she was baptized, along with her household, she pleaded with us, saying, “If you have judged me and decided that I am faithful to the Lord [a true believer], come to my house and stay.” And she persuaded us.

16It happened that as we were on our way to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination [that is, a demonic spirit claiming to foretell the future and discover hidden knowledge], and she brought her owners a good profit by fortune-telling.

17She followed after Paul and us and kept screaming and shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God! They are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!”

18She continued doing this for several days. Then Paul, being greatly annoyed and worn out, turned and said to the spirit [inside her], “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ [as His representative] to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment.

19But when her owners saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities in the market place [where trials were held],

20and when they had brought them before the chief magistrates, they said, “These men, who are Jews, are throwing our city into confusion and causing trouble.

21They are publicly teaching customs which are unlawful for us, as Romans, to accept or observe.”

22The crowd also joined in the attack against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and ordered that Paul and Silas be beaten with rods.

23After striking them many times [with the rods], they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely.

24He, having received such a [strict] command, threw them into the inner prison (dungeon) and fastened their feet in the stocks [in an agonizing position].

25But about midnight when Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them;

26suddenly there was a great earthquake, so [powerful] that the very foundations of the prison were shaken and at once all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

27When the jailer, shaken out of sleep, saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped.

28But Paul shouted, saying, “Do not hurt yourself, we are all here!”

29Then the jailer called for torches and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas,

30and after he brought them out [of the inner prison], he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31And they answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus [as your personal Savior and entrust yourself to Him] and you will be saved, you and your household [if they also believe].”

32And they spoke the word of the Lord [concerning eternal salvation through faith in Christ] to him and to all who were in his house.

33And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their bloody wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.