But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable
women,
&c.] These seem not to be Jewish women; could they be thought
to be such, they might easily be concluded to be of the sect of
the Pharisees, which was the strictest and most devout sect among
the Jews; for there were women Pharisees, as well as men; so we
read of (hvwrp hva) , "a
woman Pharisee" F2; but these were Gentile women,
proselyted to the Jewish religion, and were in their way very
religious and devout, and were also "honourable": the word used
signifies, not only that they were of a comely form, of a decent
habit, and of good manners, as it is by some interpreted; but
that they were persons of figure and distinction, of good
families; the Syriac version renders it "rich", whose husbands
were the principal men of the city; wherefore the Jews applied to
these women, and stirred up them to work upon their husbands, who
seem to be those next mentioned:
and the chief men of the city;
the magistrates and officers in it:
and raised persecution against Paul and
Barnabas;
raised the mob, and set them upon them:
and expelled them out of their coasts;
drove them out of their city and suburbs.