Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 16:25

"But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns unto God, and the prisoners were listening to them;" — Acts 16:25 (ASV)

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises.—It is better understood as, praying, they were singing hymns, as the Greek expresses one act rather than two. The act was, we may believe, habitual, and they would not discontinue it even in the dungeon, bound as they were, so that they could not kneel. The hymn may have been one of the prayer-psalms of David, or possibly one of those hymns Pliny mentions in his letters—which could well have been in use half a century earlier—in which people offered adoration to Christ as God (Epist. x. 96).

The words of Tertullian to the martyrs of his time are worth quoting: Nihil crus sentit in nervo quum animus in cælo est; Etsi corpus detinetur, omnia spiritui patent—“The leg does not feel the stocks when the mind is in heaven. Though the body is held fast, all things lie open to the spirit” (ad Mart. c. 2).

And the prisoners heard them.—It is better understood as, they were listening eagerly, the kind of listening that people give to a musical performance. Never before, we can be sure, had those outcasts and criminals heard such sounds in such a place. For the most part, those vaults echoed only with wild curses and foul jests.