Acts 3:23

23 Everyone who does not listen to Him will be completely cut off from among his people. ^[a]’

Acts 3:23 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 3:23

And it shall come to pass, that every soul
Every person, man or woman: which will not hear that prophet;
neither believe what he says, nor do what he commands; or as it is in ( Deuteronomy 18:19 ) "will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name": for he that hears not him, hearkens not to God, in whose name he speaks, and whose word he delivers, shall be destroyed from among the people;
in the Hebrew text it is, "I will require it of him"; the Hebrew word, (wmem) , there used, by having different points, may be rendered "of him", or "from his people", which seems to be the reason of this difference: and requiring often intends punishment, or a cutting off; or as Aben Ezra explains it here,

``death by the hand of heaven;''

that is, immediate destruction from God; and so Maimonides says ^F11, he that transgresses the words of that prophet, is guilty of death by the hand of heaven; and which was remarkably fulfilled in the Jewish nation, for their rejection of Jesus as the true Messiah, and that prophet.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Yesod Hattora, c. 9. sect. 4.

Acts 3:23 In-Context

21 Heaven must take Him in until the time comes for the restoration of all things, which God announced long ago through His holy prophets.

22 For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He tells you.

23 Everyone who does not listen to Him will be completely cut off from among his people. ’

24 Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have proclaimed these days.

25 And you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers when He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.’

Footnotes

• [a]. See Deuteronomy 18:19.