Actes 16:18

18 Elle fit cela pendant plusieurs jours. Paul fatigué se retourna, et dit à l'esprit: Je t'ordonne, au nom de Jésus-Christ, de sortir d'elle. Et il sortit à l'heure même.

Actes 16:18 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 16:18

And this she did many days
As the apostle and his company passed to and from the oratory, being for that time at Lydia's house; she followed them, and repeated the above words. This she was suffered to do, time after time; not that the apostle and his friends wanted such a testimony, or that it was of any use to them; but that the expulsion of the evil spirit might be more manliest, and more taken notice of: but Paul being grieved;
at the unhappy condition the maid was in, being possessed with such a spirit: and that the people were so imposed upon and deluded by it; and that it should be thought that there was any combination and agreement between that and him: turned;
himself to her, who was behind him, she following him, as is said in the preceding verse; this is left out in the Syriac version: and said to the spirit;
or to that spirit, as the same version renders it; to the spirit of Python, or Apollo, or of divination, that was in the maid; the Ethiopic version reads, "and he said", "in", or "by the Holy Spirit"; being under a more than ordinary influence and impulse of his; but not the spirit by which he spake, but the spirit to which he spake, is here meant: I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, and
he came out the same hour;
this is an instance of that power which Christ gave to his apostles to cast out devils in his name, ( Matthew 10:1 ) ( Mark 16:17 )

Actes 16:18 In-Context

16 Comme nous allions au lieu de prière, une servante qui avait un esprit de Python, et qui, en devinant, procurait un grand profit à ses maîtres, vint au-devant de nous,

17 et se mit à nous suivre, Paul et nous. Elle criait: Ces hommes sont les serviteurs du Dieu Très-Haut, et ils vous annoncent la voie du salut.

18 Elle fit cela pendant plusieurs jours. Paul fatigué se retourna, et dit à l'esprit: Je t'ordonne, au nom de Jésus-Christ, de sortir d'elle. Et il sortit à l'heure même.

19 Les maîtres de la servante, voyant disparaître l'espoir de leur gain, se saisirent de Paul et de Silas, et les traînèrent sur la place publique devant les magistrats.

20 Ils les présentèrent aux préteurs, en disant: Ces hommes troublent notre ville; ce sont des Juifs,