Acts 16:17
15 And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
16 One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who earned a large income for her masters by fortune-telling.
This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!”
18 She continued this for many days. Eventually Paul grew so aggravated that he turned and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” And the spirit left her at that very moment.
19 When the girl’s owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities in the marketplace.
Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!”
- KJV
- The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.
- WEB
- Following Paul and us, she cried out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us a way of salvation!”
- ASV
- The same following after Paul and us cried out, saying, These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim unto you the way of salvation.
- DARBY
- She, having followed Paul and us, cried saying, These men are bondmen of the Most High God, who announce to you [the] way of salvation.
- BLB
- Having followed Paul and us, she was crying out, saying, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you⁺ the way of salvation!”
- ÅB
- Hun fulgte etter Paulus og oss og ropte: Disse mennesker er den høyeste Guds tjenere, som forkynner dere frelsens vei.
- OTB
- Hun fulgte etter Paulus og oss, og ropte: "Disse mennene er Den Høyeste Guds tjenere, som forkynner dere veien til frelse."
- B1930
- Hun fulgte efter Paulus og oss og ropte: Disse mennesker er den høieste Guds tjenere, som forkynner eder frelsens vei.
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Read in context1 Peter 2:16
Live in freedom, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
Read in contextMark 5:7
And he shouted in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God not to torture me!”
Read in contextDaniel 6:20
When he reached the den, he cried out in a voice of anguish, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”
Read in contextDaniel 3:28
Nebuchadnezzar declared, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him. They violated the king’s command and risked their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.
Read in contextDaniel 3:26
Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the blazing fiery furnace and called out, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire,
Read in contextLuke 4:34
“Ha! What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
Read in contextJonah 1:9
“I am a Hebrew,” replied Jonah. “I worship the LORD, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”
Read in context