30. Paul wanted to go in and talk to the people, but the Lord’s followers did not let him go.
31. Also, some leaders of the country who were friends of Paul sent him a message telling him not to go into the stadium.
32. Some people were shouting one thing and others were shouting something else. The meeting was very confused. Most of the people did not know why they had come there.
33. Some Jews made a man named Alexander stand before the crowd, and they told him what to say. Alexander waved his hand, trying to explain things to the people.
34. But when the people saw that Alexander was a Jew, they all began shouting the same thing. For two hours they continued shouting, “Great is Artemis of Ephesus! Great is Artemis of Ephesus! Great is Artemis …!”
35. Then the city clerk persuaded the people to be quiet. He said, “Men of Ephesus, everyone knows that Ephesus is the city that keeps the temple of the great goddess Artemis. Everyone knows that we also keep her holy rock.
36. No one can deny this, so you should be quiet. You must stop and think before you do anything else.
37. “You brought these men here, but they have not said anything bad against our goddess. They have not stolen anything from her temple.
38. We have courts of law and there are judges. Do Demetrius and those men who work with him have a charge against anyone? They should go to the courts. Let them argue with each other there.
39. “Is there something else you want to talk about? Then come to the regular town meeting of the people. It can be decided there.
40. I say this because someone might see this trouble today and say we are rioting. We could not explain all this trouble, because there is no real reason for this meeting.”