Paul and Silas Imprisoned

¹⁶ Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl ^(A)possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters ^(B)much profit by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” ¹⁸ And this she did for many days.

But Paul, ^(C)greatly ^[a]annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” ^(D)And he came out that very hour. ¹⁹ But ^(E)when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and ^(F)dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

²⁰ And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, ^(G)exceedingly trouble our city; ²¹ and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” ²² Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes ^(H)and commanded them to be beaten with rods. ²³ And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. ²⁴ Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

The Philippian Jailer Saved

²⁵ But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. ^26 (I)Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately ^(J)all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. ²⁷ And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. ²⁸ But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”

²⁹ Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. ³⁰ And he brought them out and said, ^(K)“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹ So they said, ^(L)“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” ³² Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. ³³ And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. ³⁴ Now when he had brought them into his house, ^(M)he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

Paul Refuses to Depart Secretly

³⁵ And when it was day, the magistrates sent the ^[b]officers, saying, “Let those men go.”

³⁶ So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.”

³⁷ But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned ^(N)Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.”

³⁸ And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. ³⁹ Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and ^(O)asked them to depart from the city. ⁴⁰ So they went out of the prison ^(P)and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.

Deborah

4 When Ehud was dead, ^(A)the children of Israel again did ^(B)evil in the sight of the Lord. ² So the Lord ^(C)sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in ^(D)Hazor. The commander of his army was ^(E)Sisera, who dwelt in ^(F)Harosheth Hagoyim. ³ And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; for Jabin had nine hundred ^(G)chariots of iron, and for twenty years ^(H)he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel.

⁴ Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. ^5 (I)And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. ⁶ Then she sent and called for ^(J)Barak the son of Abinoam from ^(K)Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and ^[a]deploy troops at Mount ^(L)Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; ⁷ and against you ^(M)I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the ^(N)River Kishon; and I will ^[b]deliver him into your hand’?”

⁸ And Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!”

⁹ So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the Lord will ^(O)sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. ¹⁰ And Barak called ^(P)Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; he went up with ten thousand men ^(Q)under^[c] his command, and Deborah went up with him.

¹¹ Now Heber ^(R)the Kenite, of the children of ^(S)Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent near the terebinth tree at Zaanaim, ^(T)which is beside Kedesh.

¹² And they reported to Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. ¹³ So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth Hagoyim to the River Kishon.

¹⁴ Then Deborah said to Barak, ^[d]“Up! For this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hand. ^(U)Has not the Lord gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. ¹⁵ And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot. ¹⁶ But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth Hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was ^(V)left.

¹⁷ However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of ^(W)Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. ¹⁸ And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear.” And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a ^[e]blanket.

¹⁹ Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened ^(X)a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him. ²⁰ And he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man here?’ you shall say, ‘No.’ ”

²¹ Then Jael, Heber’s wife, ^(Y)took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. ²² And then, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, I will show you the man whom you seek.” And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple.

²³ So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan in the presence of the children of Israel. ²⁴ And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

The Song of Deborah

5 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam ^(Z)sang on that day, saying:

So the land had rest for forty years.

Elihu Condemns Self-Righteousness

35 Moreover Elihu answered and said: