Acts 16:16-24

As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

a spirit of divination - "The girl was demon-possessed and was being exploited by her masters (v 19)." (Ryrie)

These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation. - "What she said was, of course, true, but why she said it is another question.  Perhaps it was to gain a reward from them for advertising them thus, or to gain more influence over their hearers by having discerned and declared the truth, or, perhaps the evil spirit prompted her to cry this lest he be expelled (Cf. Luke 4:33-34).  There is still another possible explanation which may well be the correct one: that this was the sad cry of one who was spirit-possessed and knew it and recognized in the One whom Paul proclaimed her only hope of deliverance. Yet, in any case, this knowledge came from an evil spirit and her continual crying impeded the work being done for Christ.  Finally, the apostle, 'being grieved,' commanded the spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her.  Doubtless there were several factors in the case which distressed the apostle.  First, the implications of her declaration were bad.  Was he in league with heathen gods?  Surely a compliment from such a source was questionable to say the least.  This whole system was Satanic and must be discredited.  Then, the fact that people were placing their trust in this priestess of Apollo, the base motives of her masters and pity for the damsel herself—all these doubtless combined to cause the apostle to rebuke the demon and command him to depart.  Our Lord had similarly refused the testimony of the demon-possessed, for He would have no dealings with Satan (See Mark 1:34).  At this point it should be noted that while we read so much about demon and spirit possession and the casting out of demons in the Gospels and the Acts, we find no mention of these in the epistles of Paul; not even by implication in his later epistles.  It would seem that demon possession, at least in the form in which we find it in the Gospels and the Acts, was characteristic of that day, when the kingdom of Satan was being challenged by the kingdom of Christ (See Matt 12:24-29).  Those who seek to go 'back to Pentecost' instead of 'on to perfection' with Paul, sometimes make claims of demon expulsion, but true evidence of it is lacking as it is in their other claims of miraculous power ... Under the 'great commission' to the eleven, power was given to 'cast out devils,' as well as to perform other miracles (Mark 16:17-18) but in harmony with the disappearance of other miraculous powers under Paul's ministry, the casting out of demons also vanished away.  Nowhere is the believer today given such power.  Indeed, since the earthly establishment of Christ's kingdom has been deferred, Satan is not presently occupied with opposing it.  Today he smarts from what took place at Calvary and occupies himself with perverting the truth as to Christ's accomplishments there (2 Cor 11:14-15; Eph 6:12)." (Stam)

the marketplace - "The 'agora' (Latin, forum), or open space in the centre of the city which contained the public buildings, senate house, law courts, and temples of tutelary and shops and marts in abundance.  The 'agora' was the heart of the Greek city, where magistrates, civic functionaries, and others congregated." (Walker)

the rulers - "The word used is the one usually employed to denote the board of magistrates in a Greek city, and would flow naturally from St. Luke's Greek pen.  The technical term for the supreme magistrates of Philippi as a Roman colony follows in the next verse, and probably denotes the same authorities as are here alluded to.  It is possible, however, that these 'rulers' were officials or city judges who happened to be administering justice at the time in the agora, and that they remanded the prisoners to the higher authorities (the magistrates, v. 20), finding that they were political offenders." (Walker)

These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city - "Judaism was not a prohibited religion (the cult of the emperor being the official religion), but propagating it was regarded as a menace.  Paul and Silas were regarded as Jews, since, at this time, the Romans considered Christianity to be a Jewish sect." (Ryrie)

"The observation that Paul and Silas were Jews was intended to prejudice the magistrates against them since the Jews, already hated, had been expelled from Rome by Claudius Caesar (Acts 18:2).  But why this sudden concern about the sanctity of their religion?  Had the plain truth been told it would have been to the credit of the apostles, so all of a sudden they affect a zeal for the public religion!  How hypocritically conscientious men can become when their crimes are detected and exposed!  Though the Romans opposed religious innovations, they were tolerant of existing religions and, indeed declared themselves the protectors of the gods of these nations which they had conquered ... This bare account of the incident gives but a glimpse of the shameful treatment Paul and Silas were made to endure.  The whole affair was highly improper to begin with.  The plaintiffs had made a false charge and the magistrates had disgraced and punished them without a hearing or even an inquiry as to whether they were Roman citizens.  Those who had professed such zeal for Roman law were flagrantly disregarding it now.  This was evidently one of the three times when Paul was 'beaten with rods' (2 Cor 11:25).  Flogging among the Jews was limited to 39 stripes (Deut 25:3; cf. 2 Cor 11:24) but the 'many stripes' here inflicted on the naked apostles may well have exceeded that number, for in 2 Cor 11:23 Paul refers to 'stripes above measure.'" (Stam)

the inner prison - "If secular history is correct these inner prisons were horrible dungeons below the ground, damp and reeking with filth." (Stam)

fastened their feet in the stocks - "In this case, probably a wooden block with two apertures for the feet, wide apart from each other so that the prisoner's legs were at once held fast and painfully stretched and stained." (Walker)

"And here they were subjected to still another form of torture—the stocks, in which their feet were made fast.  This made it difficult to sit up and practically forced them, backs all bruised and bleeding, to lie on the damp, vile ground." (Stam)