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The earthquake at midnight:
v. 25. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God; and the prisoners heard them.
v. 26. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.
v. 27. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison-doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
v. 28. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm; for we are all here.
Peter had calmly slept in prison on the night before his execution was to take place, chap. 12:6. And here these two disciples, with their backs aching and bleeding from the merciless whipping, with their legs cramped in the instrument of torture, and their minds smarting with the sense of injustice which they had suffered, were able to put all thoughts of the torture aside and to pray. And in prayer they even got the necessary strength to sing hymns to God, to praise Him in psalms. Paul and Silas were singing, and the other prisoners were listening with attentive interest. It was a service of praise and thanksgiving such as had been rarely seen in this world, the first one of many similar ones held by Christian martyrs in the dungeons. But suddenly a great earthquake rocked the prison, with such force as to shake its very foundations. And as a result of the shaking not only were all the doors opened at that same moment, but also the fetters of all the prisoners were loosened, taken off. The Lord of the Christians is stronger than the enemies that attempt to murder His servants. It is an easy matter for Him to save them that are His own. The jailer, awakened from his sleep by the shock, came to the full realization of the situation with one sudden shock. One glance sufficed to show him the open doors of the prison, and since he concluded that the prisoners must surely have escaped, he drew his sword from its sheath with the intention of committing suicide; for death was the penalty for allowing prisoners to escape. All this, of course, did not occur without some commotion and outcry, a fact which quickly informed Paul of the situation, who thereupon with a loud voice both hindered the proposed suicide and gave the jailer the reassurance which was most apt to restore his self-control: Do nothing of harm to yourself; all of us are here. Not one of the prisoners had made an attempt to escape, though there was nothing to hinder them. It was either that they were panic-stricken on account of the earthquake, or that the behavior of Paul and Silas had so deeply impressed them that they were lost in admiration of the courage exhibited by the two tortured prisoners. Many of them undoubtedly saw a connection between the prayer of the apostles and the earthquake, and were moved to admire the almighty power of God.