Acts 19:29-41

29More and more people in the whole city began to shout. There was trouble everywhere. Gaius and Aristarchus had been travelling with Paul. They had come with him from Macedonia. Some people from the crowd took hold of Gaius and Aristarchus. They pulled them quickly to the big public meeting place in the middle of the city.

30Paul himself wanted to go there. He wanted to speak to the crowd. But the other believers would not let him do that.

31Some Roman officers in that region were Paul's friends. They also sent a message to him. They said to him, ‘Please, do not go to the meeting place.’

32The crowd of people in the meeting place continued to shout loudly. Some people were shouting one thing and other people were shouting something different. Not many of the people even knew why they had all met together.

33There was a Jewish man called Alexander in the crowd. The Jews pushed him to the front of the crowd. He raised his hands towards the people, so that they would be quiet. He wanted to explain to them that he and his Jewish friends had not caused the trouble.

34But the crowd knew that Alexander was a Jew. So they continued to shout the same words for about two hours. All together they shouted, ‘Our god Artemis of Ephesus is very great!’

35After two hours, an important officer of the city caused the crowd to be quiet. He said, ‘People of Ephesus! Everybody knows about our god Artemis who has her temple here in Ephesus. People come here to worship her. Her special stone that fell from the sky is also here in Ephesus. We take care of all her things. Everybody knows that!

36Nobody can say that this is not true. So be careful! Do not quickly do anything that is silly.

37You have brought Gaius and Aristarchus here to the city officers' meeting place. But what bad thing have they done? They have not robbed the house of Artemis. They have not said bad things against her.

38Perhaps Demetrius and his workers think that someone has done a bad thing to them. If they think that, they should let a judge decide. There are officers for the government who will do this. If someone has done a wrong thing, people should tell a judge.

39So, if you want to argue about these problems any more, do it properly. Go to the place where the judges meet.

40Today, there is a crowd of people who are shouting and fighting. The Roman rulers may hear about what has happened. They will say that we have done bad things. We could not explain to them the reason why there is all this trouble.’

41When the officer had said all this, he said to the crowd, ‘All of you should go home now.’