One day a “a slave girl who had a spirit of divination” met Paul and started yelling, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim the way of salvation.”
She did this for several days until Paul finally commanded the spirit to depart from her.
Her owners were angry because they made money from her divinations.
They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the city rulers who commanded them to be beaten with rods.
They were then thrown into the inner part of the prison and fastened in stocks.
THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE AND THE PHILIPPIAN JAILER (16:25-40):
At midnight, Paul and Silas were singing hymns in the prison.
Suddenly, there was a great earthquake and the doors of the prison opened and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.
The jailer almost killed himself, thinking all the prisoners had escaped, but Paul and Silas stopped him.
He asked Silas and Paul what he needed to do to be saved.
The two preachers taught the jailer and his whole house about Jesus and they were all baptized that night.
When it was discovered that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens and had been beaten unlawfully, the city rulers let them out of prison and apologized.
The preachers visited Lydia before departing to another city.
