Acts 16:36

36 So the jailer brought Paul word, saying, "The praetors have sent orders for you to be released. Now therefore you can go, and proceed on your way 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 bringing the Apostles up into his house, he spread a meal for them, and was filled with gladness, with his whole household, his faith resting on God.

35 In the morning the praetors sent their lictors with the order, "Release those men."

36 So the jailer brought Paul word, saying, "The praetors have sent orders for you to be released. Now therefore you can go, and proceed on your way in peace."

37 But Paul said to them, "After cruelly beating us in public, without trial, Roman citizens though we are, they have thrown us into prison, and are they now going to send us away privately? No, indeed! Let them come in person and fetch us out."

38 This answer the lictors took back to the praetors, who were alarmed when they were told that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.