19 So then, let your hearts be changed and be turned to God, so that your sins may be completely taken away, and times of blessing may come from the Lord;
For this cause be ruled by God; but make war on the Evil One and he will be put to flight before you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Make your hands clean, you evil-doers; put away deceit from your hearts, you false in mind. Be troubled, with sorrow and weeping; let your laughing be turned to sorrow and your joy to grief. Make yourselves low in the eyes of the Lord and you will be lifted up by him.
This is what the Lord of armies has said: It will again come about that when peoples and those living in great towns come, And the people of one town go to another and say, Let us certainly go with a request for grace from the Lord, and to give worship to the Lord of armies, then I will go with you. And great peoples and strong nations will come to give worship to the Lord of armies in Jerusalem and to make requests for grace from the Lord. This is what the Lord of armies has said: In those days, ten men from all the languages of the nations will put out their hands and take a grip of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for it has come to our ears that God is with you.
And say to them, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am taking the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and will get them together on every side, and take them into their land: And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king over them all: and they will no longer be two nations, and will no longer be parted into two kingdoms: And they will no longer make themselves unclean with their images or with their hated things or with any of their sins: but I will give them salvation from all their turning away in which they have done evil, and will make them clean; and they will be to me a people, and I will be to them a God. And my servant David will be king over them; and they will all have one keeper: and they will be guided by my orders and will keep my rules and do them. And they will be living in the land which I gave to Jacob, my servant, in which your fathers were living; and they will go on living there, they and their children and their children's children, for ever: and David, my servant, will be their ruler for ever. And I will make an agreement of peace with them: it will be an eternal agreement with them: and I will have mercy on them and make their numbers great, and will put my holy place among them for ever. And my House will be over them; and I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people. And the nations will be certain that I who make Israel holy am the Lord, when my holy place is among them for ever.
Make melody, O daughter of Zion; give a loud cry, O Israel; be glad and let your heart be full of joy, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away those who were judging you, he has sent your haters far away: the King of Israel, even the Lord, is among you: you will have no more fear of evil. In that day it will be said to Jerusalem, Have no fear: O Zion, let not your hands be feeble. The Lord your God is among you, as a strong saviour: he will be glad over you with joy, he will make his love new again, he will make a song of joy over you as in the time of a holy feast. I will take away your troubles, lifting up your shame from off you. See, at that time I will put an end to all who have been troubling you: I will give salvation to her whose steps are uncertain, and get together her who has been sent in flight; and I will make them a cause of praise and an honoured name in all the earth, when I let their fate be changed. At that time I will make you come in, at that time I will get you together: for I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth when I let your fate be changed before your eyes, says the Lord.
Who is a God like you, offering forgiveness for evil-doing and overlooking the sins of the rest of his heritage? he does not keep his wrath for ever, because his delight is in mercy. He will again have pity on us; he will put our sins under his feet: and you will send all our sins down into the heart of the sea.
Keep your people safe with your rod, the flock of your heritage, living by themselves in the woods in the middle of Carmel: let them get their food in Bashan and Gilead as in the past. As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt, let us see things of wonder.
See, the days will come, says the Lord, when the ploughman will overtake him who is cutting the grain, and the crusher of the grapes him who is planting seed; and sweet wine will be dropping from the mountains, and the hills will be turned into streams of wine. And I will let the fate of my people Israel be changed, and they will be building up again the waste towns and living in them; they will again be planting vine-gardens and taking the wine for their drink; and they will make gardens and get the fruit of them. And I will have them planted in their land, and never again will they be uprooted from their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God.
Come quickly, all you nations round about, and get yourselves together there: make your strong ones come down, O Lord. Let the nations be awake, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there I will be seated as judge of all the nations round about. Put in the blade, for the grain is ready: come, get you down, for the wine-crusher is full, the vessels are overflowing; for great is their evil-doing. Masses on masses in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars keep back their shining. And the Lord will be thundering from Zion, and his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will be shaking: but the Lord will be a breastplate for his people and a strong place for the children of Israel.
And I will take you as my bride for ever; truly, I will take you as my bride in righteousness and in right judging, in love and in mercies. I will take you as my bride in good faith, and you will have knowledge of the Lord. And it will be, in that day, says the Lord, that I will give an answer to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth; And the earth will give its answer to the grain and the wine and the oil, and they will give an answer to Jezreel; And I will put her as seed in the earth, and I will have mercy on her to whom no mercy was given; and I will say to those who were not my people, You are my people, and they will say, My God.
For this cause the Lord has said, Now I will let the fate of Jacob be changed, and I will have mercy on all the children of Israel, and will take care of the honour of my holy name. And they will be conscious of their shame and of all the wrong which they have done against me, when they are living in their land with no sense of danger and with no one to be a cause of fear to them; When I have taken them back from among the peoples and got them together out of the lands of their haters, and have made myself holy in them before the eyes of a great number of nations. And they will be certain that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them away as prisoners among the nations, and have taken them together back to their land; and I have not let one of them be there any longer. And my face will no longer be covered from them: for I have sent the out-flowing of my spirit on the children of Israel, says the Lord.
And I will put over them one keeper, and he will give them food, even my servant David; he will give them food and be their keeper. And I the Lord will be their God and my servant David their ruler; I the Lord have said it. And I will make with them an agreement of peace, and will put an end to evil beasts through all the land: and they will be living safely in the waste land, sleeping in the woods. And I will give the rain at the right time, and I will make the shower come down at the right time; there will be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field will give its fruit and the earth will give its increase, and they will be safe in their land; and they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I have had their yoke broken and have given them salvation from the hands of those who made them servants. And their goods will no longer be taken by the nations, and they will not again be food for the beasts of the earth; but they will be living safely and no one will be a cause of fear to them. And I will give them planting-places of peace, and they will no longer be wasted from need of food or put to shame by the nations. And they will be certain that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, the children of Israel, are my people, says the Lord. And you are my sheep, the sheep of my grass-lands, and I am your God, says the Lord.
To make their eyes open, turning them from the dark to the light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may have forgiveness of sins and a heritage among those who are made holy by faith in me. So, then, King Agrippa, I did not go against the vision from heaven; But I went about, first to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, and through all the country of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, preaching a change of heart, so that they, being turned to God, might give, in their works, the fruits of a changed heart.
My brothers, if one of you has gone out of the way of the true faith and another has made him see his error, Be certain that he through whom a sinner has been turned from the error of his way, keeps a soul from death and is the cause of forgiveness for sins without number.
For this cause I will be your judge, O children of Israel, judging every man by his ways, says the Lord. Come back and be turned from all your sins; so that they may not be the cause of your falling into evil. Put away all your evil-doing in which you have done sin; and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit: why are you desiring death, O children of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him on whom death comes, says the Lord: be turned back then, and have life.
But if in those lands you are turned again to the Lord your God, searching for him with all your heart and soul, he will not keep himself from you. When you are in trouble and all these things have come on you, if, in the future, you are turned again to the Lord your God, and give ear to his voice: Because the Lord your God is a God of mercy, he will not take away his help from you or let destruction overtake you, or be false to the agreement which he made by an oath with your fathers.
And with all their heart and soul are turned again to you, in the land of those who took them prisoners, and make their prayer to you, turning their eyes to this land which you gave to their fathers, and to the town which you took for yourself, and the house which I made for your name: Then give ear to their prayer and to their cry in heaven your living-place, and see right done to them; Answering with forgiveness the people who have done wrong against you, and overlooking the evil which they have done against you; let those who made them prisoners be moved with pity for them, and have pity on them;
<Of David. Maschil.> Happy is he who has forgiveness for his wrongdoing, and whose sin is covered. Happy is the man in whom the Lord sees no evil, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept my mouth shut, my bones were wasted, because of my crying all through the day. For the weight of your hand was on me day and night; my body became dry like the earth in summer. (Selah.) I made my wrongdoing clear to you, and did not keep back my sin. I said, I will put it all before the Lord; and you took away my wrongdoing and my sin. (Selah.)
<To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.> Have pity on me, O God, in your mercy; out of a full heart, take away my sin. Let all my wrongdoing be washed away, and make me clean from evil. For I am conscious of my error; my sin is ever before me.
May he come down like rain on the cut grass; like showers watering the earth. In his days may the upright do well, living in peace as long as there is a moon in heaven. Let his kingdom be from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth. Let those who are against him go down before him; and let his haters be low in the dust. Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands come back with offerings; let the kings of Sheba and Seba give of their stores. Yes, let all kings go down before him; let all nations be his servants. For he will be a saviour to the poor in answer to his cry; and to him who is in need, without a helper. He will have pity on the poor, and be the saviour of those who are in need. He will keep their souls free from evil designs and violent attacks; and their blood will be of value in his eyes. May he have long life, and may gold from Sheba be given to him: may prayers be made for him at all times; may blessings be on him every day. May there be wide-stretching fields of grain in the land, shaking on the top of the mountains, full of fruit like Lebanon: may its stems be unnumbered like the grass of the earth. May his name go on for ever, as long as the sun: may men be blessing themselves by him; may all nations be blessing his name. Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, the only doer of wonders. Praise to the glory of his noble name for ever; let all the earth be full of his glory. So be it, So be it.
<A Psalm.> O make a new song to the Lord, because he has done works of wonder; with his right hand, and with his holy arm, he has overcome. The Lord has given to all the knowledge of his salvation; he has made clear his righteousness in the eyes of the nations. He has kept in mind his mercy and his unchanging faith to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Let all the earth send out a glad cry to the Lord; sounding with a loud voice, and praising him with songs of joy. Make melody to the Lord with instruments of music; with a corded instrument and the voice of song. With wind instruments and the sound of the horn, make a glad cry before the Lord, the King. Let the sea be thundering, with all its waters; the world, and all who are living in it; Let the streams make sounds of joy with their hands; let the mountains be glad together, Before the Lord, for he has come as judge of the earth; judging the world in righteousness, and giving true decisions for the peoples.
Be washed, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; let there be an end of sinning; Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright, keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who has no father, see to the cause of the widow. Come now, and let us have an argument together, says the Lord: how may your sins which are red like blood be white as snow? how may their dark purple seem like wool? If you will give ear to my word and do it, the good things of the land will be yours; But if your hearts are turned against me, I will send destruction on you by the sword; so the Lord has said.
The word which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw about Judah and Jerusalem. And it will come about in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord will be placed on the top of the mountains, and be lifted up over the hills; and all nations will come to it. And the peoples will say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will give us knowledge of his ways, and we will be guided by his word; for out of Zion the law will go out, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
They will not be in need of food or drink, or be troubled by the heat or the sun: for he who has mercy on them will be their guide, taking them by the springs of water. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways will be lifted up. See, these are coming from far; and these from the north and the west; and these from the land of Sinim. Let your voice be loud in song, O heavens; and be glad, O earth; make sounds of joy, O mountains, for the Lord has given comfort to his people, and will have mercy on his crushed ones. But Zion said, The Lord has given me up, I have gone from his memory. Will a woman give up the child at her breast, will she be without pity for the fruit of her body? yes, these may, but I will not let you go out of my memory. See, your name is marked on my hands; your walls are ever before me. Your builders are coming quickly; your haters and those who made you waste will go out of you. Let your eyes be lifted up round about, and see: they are all coming together to you. By my life, says the Lord, truly you will put them all on you as an ornament, and be clothed with them like a bride. For though the waste places of your land have been given to destruction, now you will not be wide enough for your people, and those who made you waste will be far away. The children to whom you gave birth in other lands will say in your ears, The place is not wide enough for me: make room for me to have a resting-place. Then you will say in your heart, Who has given me all these children? when my children had been taken from me, and I was no longer able to have others, who took care of these? when I was by myself, where then were these? This is the word of the Lord God: See, I will make a sign with my hand to the nations, and put up my flag for the peoples; and they will take up your sons on their beasts, and your daughters on their backs.
Awake! awake! put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful robes, O Jerusalem, the holy town: for from now there will never again come into you the unclean and those without circumcision. Make yourself clean from the dust; up! and take the seat of your power, O Jerusalem: the bands of your neck are loose, O prisoned daughter of Zion. For the Lord says, You were given for nothing, and you will be made free without price. For the Lord God says, My people went down at first into Egypt, to get a place for themselves there: and the Assyrian put a cruel yoke on them without cause. Now then, what have I here? says the Lord, for my people are taken away without cause; they are made waste and give cries of sorrow, says the Lord, and all the day the nations put shame on my name. For this cause I will make my name clear to my people; in that day they will be certain that it is my word which comes to them; see, here am I. How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who comes with good news, who gives word of peace, saying that salvation is near; who says to Zion, Your God is ruling! The voice of your watchmen! their voices are loud in song together; for they will see him, eye to eye, when the Lord comes back to Zion. Give sounds of joy, make melody together, waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord has given comfort to his people, he has taken up the cause of Jerusalem. The Lord has let his holy arm be seen by the eyes of all nations; and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
Let your voice be loud in song, O woman without children; make melody and sounds of joy, you who did not give birth: for the children of her who had no husband are more than those of the married wife, says the Lord. Make wide the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your house be stretched out without limit: make your cords long, and your tent-pins strong. For I will make wide your limits on the right hand and on the left; and your seed will take the nations for a heritage, and make the waste towns full of people. Have no fear; for you will not be shamed or without hope: you will not be put to shame, for the shame of your earlier days will go out of your memory, and you will no longer keep in mind the sorrows of your widowed years. For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of armies is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is he who takes up your cause; he will be named the God of all the earth. For the Lord has made you come back to him, like a wife who has been sent away in grief of spirit; for one may not give up the wife of one's early days. For a short time I gave you up; but with great mercies I will take you back again. In overflowing wrath my face was veiled from you for a minute, but I will have pity on you for ever, says the Lord who takes up your cause. For this is like the days of Noah to me: for as I took an oath that the waters of Noah would never again go over the earth, so have I taken an oath that I will not again be angry with you, or say bitter words to you. For the mountains may be taken away, and the hills be moved out of their places, but my love will not be taken from you, or my agreement of peace broken, says the Lord, who has had mercy on you. O troubled one, storm-crushed, uncomforted! see, your stones will be framed in fair colours, and your bases will be sapphires. I will make your towers of rubies, and your doors of carbuncles, and the wall round you will be of all sorts of beautiful stones. And all your builders will be made wise by the Lord; and great will be the peace of your children. All your rights will be made certain to you: have no fear of evil, and destruction will not come near you.
Up! let your face be bright, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is shining on you. For truly, the earth will be dark, and the peoples veiled in blackest night; but the Lord will be shining on you, and his glory will be seen among you. And nations will come to your light, and kings to your bright dawn. Let your eyes be lifted up, and see: they are all coming together to you: your sons will come from far, and your daughters taken with loving care. Then you will see, and be bright with joy, and your heart will be shaking with increase of delight: for the produce of the sea will be turned to you, the wealth of the nations will come to you. You will be full of camel-trains, even the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba will come, with gold and spices, giving word of the great acts of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar will come together to you, the sheep of Nebaioth will be ready for your need; they will be pleasing offerings on my altar, and my house of prayer will be beautiful. Who are these coming like a cloud, like a flight of doves to their windows? Vessels of the sea-lands are waiting for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, so that your sons may come from far, and their silver and gold with them, to the place of the name of the Lord your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful. And men from strange countries will be building up your walls, and their kings will be your servants: for in my wrath I sent punishment on you, but in my grace I have had mercy on you. Your doors will be open at all times; they will not be shut day or night; so that men may come into you with the wealth of the nations, with their kings at their head. For the nation or kingdom which will not be your servant will come to destruction; such nations will be completely waste. The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the sherbin-tree together, to make my holy place beautiful; and the resting-place of my feet will be full of glory. And the sons of those who were cruel to you will come before you with bent heads; and those who made sport of you will go down on their faces at your feet; and you will be named, The Town of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. And though you were turned away from, and hated, and had no helper, I will make you a pride for ever, a joy from generation to generation. And you will take the milk of the nations, flowing from the breast of kings; and you will see that I, the Lord, am your saviour, and he who takes up your cause, the Strong One of Jacob. In place of brass, I will give gold, and for iron silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: and I will make Peace your judge, and Righteousness your overseer. Violent acts will no longer be seen in your land, wasting or destruction in your limits; but your walls will be named, Salvation, and your doors Praise. The sun will not be your light by day, and the moon will no longer be bright for you by night: but the Lord will be to you an eternal light, and your God your glory. Your sun will never again go down, or your moon keep back her light: for the Lord will be your eternal light, and the days of your sorrow will be ended. Your people will all be upright, the land will be their heritage for ever; the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, to be for my glory. The smallest of their families will become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I, the Lord, will make it come quickly in its time.
In those days and at that time, I will let a Branch of righteousness come up for David; and he will be a judge in righteousness in the land. In those days, Judah will have salvation and Jerusalem will be safe: and this is the name which will be given to her: The Lord is our righteousness. For the Lord has said, David will never be without a man to take his place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel; And the priests and the Levites will never be without a man to come before me, offering burned offerings and perfumes and meal offerings and offerings of beasts at all times. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, The Lord has said: If it is possible for my agreement of the day and the night to be broken, so that day and night no longer come at their fixed times, Then my agreement with my servant David may be broken, so that he no longer has a son to take his place on the seat of the kingdom; and my agreement with the Levites, the priests, my servants. As it is not possible for the army of heaven to be numbered, or the sand of the sea measured, so will I make the seed of my servant David, and the Levites my servants. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, Have you taken note of what these people have said, The two families, which the Lord took for himself, he has given up? This they say, looking down on my people as being, in their eyes, no longer a nation. The Lord has said, If I have not made day and night, and if the limits of heaven and earth have not been fixed by me, Then I will give up caring for the seed of Jacob and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will let their fate be changed and will have mercy on them.
See, I will get them together from all the countries where I have sent them in my wrath and in the heat of my passion and in my bitter feeling; and I will let them come back into this place where they may take their rest safely. And they will be my people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one heart and one way, so that they may go on in the worship of me for ever, for their good and the good of their children after them: And I will make an eternal agreement with them, that I will never give them up, but ever do them good; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they will not go away from me. And truly, I will take pleasure in doing them good, and all my heart and soul will be given to planting them in this land in good faith.
But this is the agreement which I will make with the people of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my law in their inner parts, writing it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be my people. And no longer will they be teaching every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Get knowledge of the Lord: for they will all have knowledge of me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord: for they will have my forgiveness for their evil-doing, and their sin will go from my memory for ever.
How long will you go on turning this way and that, O wandering daughter? for the Lord has made a new thing on the earth, a woman changed into a man. So the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, Again will these words be used in the land of Judah and in its towns, when I have let their fate be changed: May the blessing of the Lord be on you, O resting-place of righteousness, O holy mountain. And Judah and all its towns will be living there together; the farmers and those who go about with flocks. For I have given new strength to the tired soul and to every sorrowing soul in full measure. At this, awaking from my sleep, I saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
Certainly Ephraim's words of grief have come to my ears, You have given me training and I have undergone it like a young cow unused to the yoke: let me be turned and come back, for you are the Lord my God. Truly, after I had been turned, I had regret for my ways; and after I had got knowledge, I made signs of sorrow: I was put to shame, truly, I was covered with shame, because I had to undergo the shame of my early years. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he the child of my delight? for whenever I say things against him, I still keep him in my memory: so my heart is troubled for him; I will certainly have mercy on him, says the Lord.
And I am coming to get together all nations and tongues: and they will come and will see my glory. And I will put a sign among them, and I will send those who are still living to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, Meshech and Rosh, Tubal and Javan, to the sea-lands far away, who have not had word of me, or seen my glory; and they will give the knowledge of my glory to the nations. And they will take your countrymen out of all the nations for an offering to the Lord, on horses, and in carriages, and in carts, and on asses, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, as the children of Israel take their offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. And some of them will I take for priests and Levites, says the Lord. For as the new heaven and the new earth which I will make will be for ever before me, says the Lord, so will your seed and your name be for ever.
Have joy with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you her lovers: take part in her joy, all you who are sorrowing for her: So that you may take of the comfort flowing from her breasts, and be delighted with the full measure of her glory. For the Lord says, See, I will make her peace like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream, and she will take her children in her arms, gently caring for them on her knees. As to one who is comforted by his mother, so will I give you comfort: and you will be comforted in Jerusalem. And you will see it and your heart will be glad, and your bones will get new strength, like young grass: and the hand of the Lord will be seen at work for his servants, and his wrath against his haters.
For see, I am making a new heaven and a new earth: and the past things will be gone completely out of mind. But men will be glad and have joy for ever in what I am making; for I am making Jerusalem a delight, and her people a joy. And I will be glad over Jerusalem, and have joy in my people: and the voice of weeping will no longer be sounding in her, or the voice of grief. No longer will there be there a child whose days are cut short, or an old man whose days have not come to their full measure: for the young man at his death will be a hundred years old, and he whose life is shorter than a hundred years will seem as one cursed. And they will be building houses and living in them; planting vine-gardens and getting the fruit of them. They will no longer be building for the use of others, or planting for others to have the fruit: for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my loved ones will have joy in full measure in the work of their hands. Their work will not be for nothing, and they will not give birth to children for destruction; for they are a seed to whom the Lord has given his blessing, and their offspring will be with them. And before they make their request I will give an answer, and while they are still making prayer to me, I will give ear. The wolf and the lamb will take their food together, and the lion will make a meal of grass like the ox: but dust will be the snake's food. There will be no cause of pain or destruction in all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Make search for the Lord while he is there, make prayer to him while he is near: Let the sinner give up his way, and the evil-doer his purpose: and let him come back to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for there is full forgiveness with him.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Acts 3
Commentary on Acts 3 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 3
Ac 3:1-26. Peter Heals a Lame Man at the Temple Gate—Hs Address to the Wondering Multitude.
1-11. Peter and John—already associated by their Master, first with James (Mr 1:29; 5:37; 9:2), then by themselves (Lu 22:8; and see Joh 13:23, 24). Now we find them constantly together, but John (yet young) only as a silent actor.
went up—were going up, were on their way.
2. a certain man lame from his mother's womb—and now "above forty years old" (Ac 4:22).
was carried—was wont to be carried.
4, 5. Peter fastening his eyes on him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed—that, through the eye, faith might be aided in its birth.
6. Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee—What a lofty superiority breathes in these words!
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk—These words, uttered with supernatural power, doubtless begat in this poor man the faith that sent healing virtue through his diseased members.
7. And he took … and lifted him up—precisely what his Lord had done to his own mother-in-law (Mr 1:31).
his feet—"soles."
and ankle bones, &c.—the technical language of a physician (Col 4:14).
8. leaping up, stood … walked … entered the temple walking, leaping, and praising God—Every word here is emphatic, expressing the perfection of the cure, as Ac 3:7 its immediateness.
9. all the people saw him, &c.—as they assembled at the hour of public prayer, in the temple courts; so that the miracle had the utmost publicity.
10. they knew that it was he which sat for alms, &c.—(Compare Joh 9:8).
11. the lame man … held, &c.—This is human nature.
all the people ran together unto them in the porch, &c.—How vividly do these graphic details bring the whole scene before us! Thus was Peter again furnished with a vast audience, whose wonder at the spectacle of the healed beggar clinging to his benefactors prepared them to listen with reverence to his words.
12-16. why marvel at this?—For miracles are marvels only in relation to the limited powers of man.
as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk—Neither the might nor the merit of the cure are due to us, mere agents of Him whom we preach.
13. The God of Abraham, &c.—(See on Ac 2:22; Ac 2:36).
hath glorified his Son Jesus—rather, "his Servant Jesus," as the same word is rendered in Mt 12:18, but in that high sense in which Isaiah applies it always to Messiah (Isa 42:1; 49:6; 52:13; 53:11). When "Son" is intended a different word is used.
whom ye delivered up, &c.—With what heroic courage does Peter here charge his auditors with the heaviest of all conceivable crimes, and with what terrific strength of language are these charges clothed!
15. killed the Prince of life—Glorious paradox, but how piercing to the conscience of the auditors.
16. his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, &c.—With what skill does the apostle use the miracle both to glorify his ascended Lord and bring the guilt of His blood more resistlessly home to his audience!
17-21. And now, brethren—Our preacher, like his Master, "will not break the bruised reed." His heaviest charges are prompted by love, which now hastens to assuage the wounds it was necessary to inflict.
I wot—"know."
through ignorance ye did it—(See marginal references, Lu 23:34; Ac 13:27; 26:9).
18. that Christ—The best manuscripts read, "that His Christ."
should suffer—The doctrine of a Suffering Messiah was totally at variance with the current views of the Jewish Church, and hard to digest even by the Twelve, up to the day of their Lord's resurrection. Our preacher himself revolted at it, and protested against it, when first nakedly announced, for which he received a terrible rebuke. Here he affirms it to be the fundamental truth of ancient prophecy realized unwittingly by the Jews themselves, yet by a glorious divine ordination. How great a change had the Pentecostal illumination wrought upon his views!
19. when the times of refreshing shall come—rather, "in order that the times of refreshing may come"; that long period of repose, prosperity and joy, which all the prophets hold forth to the distracted Church and this miserable world, as eventually to come, and which is here, as in all the prophets, made to turn upon the national conversion of Israel.
20. he shall send Jesus Christ—The true reading is, "He shall send your predestinated (or foreordained) Messiah, Jesus."
21. until the times—embracing the whole period between the ascension and the second advent of Christ.
restitution of all things—comprehending, probably, the rectification of all the disorders of the fall.
22-26. a prophet … like unto me—particularly in intimacy of communication with God (Nu 12:6-8), and as the mediatorial Head of a new order of things (Heb 3:2-6). Peter takes it for granted that, in the light of all he had just said, it would be seen at once that One only had any claim to be that Prophet.
him shall ye hear in all things, &c.—This part of the prediction is emphatically added, in order to shut up the audience to the obedience of faith, on pain of being finally "cut off" from the congregation of the righteous (Ps 1:1).
24. foretold of these days—of Messiah; all pointing to "the time of reformation" (Heb 9:10), though with more or less distinctness.
25. Ye are the children … of the covenant—and so the natural heirs of its promises.
in thy seed, &c.—(See on Ga 3:8, &c.).
26. God, having raised up—not from the dead, but having provided, prepared, and given.
his Son Jesus—"His Servant Jesus" (see on Ac 3:13).
sent him to bless you—literally, "sent Him blessing you," as if laden with blessing.
in turning away every one of you from his iniquities—that is, "Hitherto we have all been looking too much for a Messiah who should shed outward blessings upon the nation generally, and through it upon the world. But we have learned other things, and now announce to you that the great blessing with which Messiah has come laden is the turning away of every one of you from his iniquities." With what divine skill does the apostle, founding on resistless facts, here drive home to the conscience of his auditors their guilt in crucifying the Lord of Glory; then soothe their awakened minds by assurances of forgiveness on turning to the Lord, and a glorious future as soon as this shall come to pass, to terminate with the Personal Return of Christ from the heavens whither He has ascended; ending all with warnings, from their own Scriptures, to submit to Him if they would not perish, and calls to receive from Him the blessings of salvation.