Judg 16:2-3, Act 9:29-30, 14:5-6, 17:10-15, 23:12-21, 25:3, 11, 2Cor 11:32 | TSK | STEP

that.Such execrable vows as these were not unusual among the Jews, who, from their perverted traditions, challenged to themselves a right of punishing without any legal process, those whom they considered transgressors of the law; and in some cases, as in the case of one who had forsaken the law of Moses, they thought they were justified in killing them. They therefore made no scruple of acquainting the chief priests and elders with their conspiracy against the life of Paul, and applying for their connivance and support; who, being chiefly of the sect of the Sadducees, and the apostle's bitterest enemies, were so far from blaming them for it, that they gladly aided and abetted them in this mode of dispatching him, and on its failure they soon afterwards determined upon making a similar attempt. (ch. 25:2, 3.) If these were, in their bad way, conscientious men, they were under no necessity of perishing for hunger, when the providence of God had hindered them from accomplishing their vow; for their vows of abstinence from eating and drinking were as easy to loose as to bind, any of their wise men or Rabbis having power to absolve them, as Dr. Lightfoot has shown from the Talmud.

1Sa 14:24,27,28,40-44; Ps 31:13

which.

2Sa 15:12,31; Joh 16:2

Ps 52:1,2; Isa 3:9; Jer 6:15; 8:12; Ho 4:9; Mic 7:3

that he.

25:3; Ps 21:11; 37:32,33; Pr 1:11,12,16; 4:16; Isa 59:7; Ro 3:14-16

when.

Job 5:13; Pr 21:30; La 3:37; 1Co 3:19

he went.

2Sa 17:17

one.

23; 22:26; Pr 22:3; Mt 8:8,9; 10:16

Paul.

16:25; 27:1; 28:17; Ge 40:14,15; Eph 3:1; 4:1; Phm 1:9

something.

Lu 7:40

took.

Jer 31:32; Mr 8:23; 9:27

What.

Ne 2:4; Es 5:3; 7:2; 9:12; Mr 10:51

The Jews.

as.

15; Ps 12:2; Da 6:5-12

do not.

Ex 23:2

for.

12-14; 9:23,24; 14:5,6; 20:19; 25:3; 2Co 11:26,32,33

an oath.

14; Ro 9:3

Acts 25:3

desired.

9:2; 1Sa 23:19-21; Jer 38:4; Mr 6:23-25; Lu 23:8-24

laying.

23:12-15; 26:9-11; Ps 37:32,33; 64:2-6; 140:1-5; Jer 18:18; Joh 16:3

Ro 3:8

Acts 25:11

if I.

18:14; Jos 22:22; 1Sa 12:3-5; Job 31:21,38-40; Ps 7:3-5

no man.

16:37; 22:25; 1Th 2:15

I appeal.An appeal to the emperor was the right of a Roman citizen, and was highly respected. The Julian law condemned those magistrates, and others, as violaters of the public peace, who had put to death, tortured, scourged, imprisoned, or condemned any Roman citizen who had appealed to Cesar. This law was so sacred and imperative, that, in the persecution under Trajan, Pliny would not attempt to put to death Roman citizens, who were proved to have turned Christians, but determined to send them to Rome, probably because they had appealed.

10,25; 26:32; 28:19; 1Sa 27:1

2 Corinthians 11:32

Damascus.

26; Ac 9:24,25

Aretas.This Aretas was an Arabian king, and the father-in-law of Herod Antipas, upon whom he made war in consequence of his having divorced his daughter. Herod applied to Tiberius for help, who sent Vitellius to reduce Aretas, and to bring him alive or dead to Rome. By some means or other Vitellius delayed his operations, and in the mean time Tiberius died; and it is probable that Aretas, who was thus snatched from ruin, availed himself of the favourable state of things, and seized on Damascus, which had belonged to his ancestors.