Acts 7:26

26 And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?'

Acts 7:26 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 7:26

And the next day he showed himself to them, as they strove,
&c.] To two men of the Hebrews, who were quarrelling and contending with one another: these are said by the Jews F23 to be Dathan and Abiram; who were disputing and litigating the point, and were very warm, and at high words. The occasion of their contention is F24 said to be this,

``the Hebrew man (that had been abused) went to his house to divorce his wife, who was defiled, but she fled and told the affair to Abiram her brother: and on the morrow, Moses returned a second time to the Hebrew camp, and found Dathan and Abiram contending about the divorce.''

Though some think this is prophetically said, because they afterwards contended and divided in the business of Korah F25 Moses came up to them, and let them know who he was; and this was the day after he had killed the Egyptian. So Stephen explains the "second day" in ( Exodus 2:13 ) and to this agrees what a Jewish writer F26 says, that in the morning, Moses returned a second time to the camp of the Hebrews:

and would have set them at one again;
persuaded them to peace and concord, composed their difference, reconciled them, and made them good friends:

saying, sirs, ye are brethren;
as Abraham said to Lot, when there was a strife between their herdsmen, ( Genesis 13:8 ) and if these two were Dathan and Abiram, they were brethren in the strictest sense, ( Numbers 16:1 )

why do ye wrong one to another?
by abusing each other, calling ill names, or striking one another; or by lifting up the hand to strike, as Jonathan the Targumist says Dathan did against Abiram.


FOOTNOTES:

F23 Shalshalet, ib.
F24 Targum Jon. Jarchi, & Baal Hattuim in Exod. ii. 13. Shemot Rabba, Shalshalet & Pirke Eliezer, ut supra.
F25 Shemot Rabba, ib. & Yade Mose & Mattanot Cehunah in ib.
F26 Shelsheleth, ib.

Acts 7:26 In-Context

24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.
25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
26 And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?'
27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
28 Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?'
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.