Acts 16:36

36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul: "The chief magistrates have sent [an order] that you should be released. So come out now [and] go in peace!"

Acts 16:36 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 16:36

And the keeper of the prison told this, saying to Paul,
&c.] The Ethiopic version adds, "and to Silas"; this was the same person with the jailer, whom Paul had baptized; and indeed, the same word is here used, though a little differently rendered, who no doubt reported this message to Paul with great joy:

the magistrates have sent to let you go;
they have sent an order to let you out of prison:

now therefore depart, and go in peace;
which expresses the jailer's pleasure of mind, and joy of heart, in executing his orders; and his sincere and hearty wishes for peace and prosperity to go along with them wherever they went, who had been instrumental of so much good to him and his family.

Acts 16:36 In-Context

34 And he brought them up into [his] house [and] set a meal before [them], and rejoiced greatly that he had believed in God with his whole household.

35 And [when it] was day, the chief magistrates sent the police officers, saying, "Release those men."

36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul: "The chief magistrates have sent [an order] that you should be released. So come out now [and] go in peace!"

37 But Paul said to them, "They beat us in public without due process--men who are Roman citizens--[and] threw [us] into prison, and now they are wanting to release us secretly? Certainly not! Rather let them come themselves [and] bring us out!"

38 So the police officers reported these words to the chief magistrates, and they were afraid [when they] heard that they were Roman citizens.

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
• [b]. *Here "[and]" is supplied because the previous participle ("come out") has been translated as a finite verb