¹³ And on ^(A)the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were thinking that there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled.

First Convert in Europe

¹⁴ A woman named Lydia was listening; she was a seller of purple fabrics from the city of ^(B)Thyatira, and ^(C)a worshiper of God. ^[a]The Lord ^(D)opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. ¹⁵ Now when she and ^(E)her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

¹⁶ It happened that as we were going to ^(F)the place of prayer, a slave woman who had ^(G)a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing great profit to her masters by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ She followed Paul and us and cried out repeatedly, saying, “These men are bond-servants of ^(H)the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.” ¹⁸ Now she continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and he turned and said to the spirit, “I command you ^(I)in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very ^[b]moment.

¹⁹ But when her masters saw that their hope of ^(J)profit was suddenly gone, they seized ^(K)Paul and Silas and ^(L)dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities, ²⁰ and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, “These men, Jews as they are, are causing our city trouble, ²¹ and they ^(M)are proclaiming customs that are not lawful for us to accept or to practice, since we are ^(N)Romans.”

Paul and Silas Imprisoned

²² The crowd joined in an attack against them, and the chief magistrates tore their ^[c]robes off them and proceeded to order ^[d]them to be ^(O)beaten with rods. ²³ When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding ^(P)the jailer to guard them securely; ^24 [e]and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in ^(Q)the ^[f]stocks.

²⁵ Now about midnight ^(R)Paul and Silas were praying and ^(S)singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; ²⁶ and suddenly ^(T)there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately ^(U)all the doors were opened, and everyone’s ^(V)chains were unfastened. ²⁷ When ^(W)the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about ^(X)to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” ²⁹ And the jailer asked for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before ^(Y)Paul and Silas; ³⁰ and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, ^(Z)what must I do to be saved?”

The Jailer Converted

³¹ They said, “^(AA)Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and ^(AB)your household.” ³² And they spoke the word of God to him together with all who were in his house. ³³ And he took them ^(AC)that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. ³⁴ And he brought them into his house and set ^[g]food before them, and was ^[h]overjoyed, since he had become a believer in God together with ^(AD)his whole household.

¹² While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name, ^(A)which You have given Me; and I guarded them, and ^(B)not one of them perished except ^(C)the ^[a]son of destruction, so that the ^(D)Scripture would be fulfilled.

⁴³ “^(A)Now when the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and brings along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they come in and live there; and ^(B)the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”