21 After all of this, Paul decided in his spirit that he would need to travel through Macedonia and Achaia enroute to Yerusalem, saying, “After I’ve been there a while, I will also need to go to Rome.” 22 He sent two of his workers, Timothy and Eratos, to Macedonia while he stayed on a bit longer in Asia Minor.

23 But while he was still there, a major disturbance hit the Yeshua followers. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius made little silver shrines of Artemis and this business brought a tidy profit to the local craftsmen. 25 Demetrius gathered all the workers together and told them, “Men, you all know that our prosperity comes from this business of ours. 26 But you’ve seen yourselves and heard from others that not only Ephesus, but almost our entire province of Asia Minor has become persuaded by this Paul fellow, and now the crowds are saying that what we make are not real gods. 27 However it’s not only us and our trade that is coming into disrepute, but the temple of the great goddess Artemis is considered to be useless. This could result in a loss of power for the great Artemis that all of Asia Minor and the inhabited world have been worshipping.”

28 When the gathering heard this, they became very angry and yelled out, “Artemis of the Ephesians is great!” 29 Then the whole city was filled with confusion and the people rushed to the theatre and grabbed Gaius and Aristarchus from Macedonia—travelling companions of Paul’s. 30 Now Paul wanted to go there and speak to the crowd, but the believers wouldn’t let him go. 31 Also some of the leaders from Asia Minor who were friendly towards him, sent messengers to him to implore him not to go to the theatre. 32 Some of the people gathered there were yelling out something, but overall it was just confusion, and the majority of the people couldn’t even tell you the reason why they were there. 33 Some people in the crowd selected Alexander the Jew and sent him forward to speak, so he motioned with his hand ready to explain the situation to the people. 34 But as soon as they recognised that he was a Jew, people started yelling, “Artemis of the Ephesians is great,” and this continued for over two hours.

35 Eventually the city administrator was able to calm the crowd and tell them, “Men, fellow Ephesians, what person from around here doesn’t know that it’s Ephesus that’s the temple keeper of the great Artemis and of this image that fell down from Zeus? 36 Since all of this is unquestionable, it makes sense for everyone to calm down and not do anything reckless. 37 These men that you presented here haven’t stolen anything from the temple, nor have they slandered our goddess. 38 So if Demetrius and the silver craftsmen with him have a case against anyone, they should bring it to the courts and the proconsuls and register the charges. 39 But for the rest of you, if you have a grievance against others, it needs to be settled in a lawful assembly 40 because we’re in danger of being charged with insurrection about what happened today. And we would have no defence that we could respond with concerning this disorderly gathering.” Then he told them all to go home.