Acts 13:11

11 And now behold, the hand of the Lord [is] against you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun {for a while}. And immediately mist and darkness fell over him, and he was going around looking for [people] to lead [him] by the hand.

Acts 13:11 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 13:11

And now behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee
That is, the power of God was just ready to be exerted on him in a way of punishment, by striking him with blindness:

and thou shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a season:
so blind as not to see the sun, when it shined ever so brightly: this punishment seems to be but for a time; and some say that Elymas repented, and had his sight restored to him; and after that he returned to his sorcery, and again greatly opposed Barnabas in the island of Cyprus:

and immediately there fell on him a mist and darkness;
as soon as ever the apostle had said the above words, a dark mist fell upon his eyes, which began the blindness, and issued in a total one:

and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand;
he groped about the room, if he could find, and lay hold on some person to lead him: for he was quickly stone blind, so that he could not guide himself, as the men of Sodom were, when smitten with blindness by the angel; wherefore, though they groped about for the door of the house till they were weary, they could not find it, ( Genesis 19:11 ) of which the Jews say, as here, that it was (Mvh tam hkm) , "a stroke from God" ^F21. Blind men need one to hold them by the hand, and lead them, as Samson, ( Judges 16:26 ) and Saul, ( Acts 9:8 ) . The striking this man with blindness is an instance of the power the apostles were endued with, for the punishing of offenders: so Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead for telling a lie: and the incestuous person was delivered to Satan to undergo a corporeal punishment for his incest; as Hymenaeus and Alexander were for their blasphemy, ( Acts 5:5 Acts 5:10 ) ( 1 Corinthians 5:5 ) ( 1 Timothy 1:20 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 Tzeror Hammor, fol. 20. 3.

Acts 13:11 In-Context

9 But Saul (also called Paul), filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him

10 [and] said, "O [you who are] full of all deceit and of all unscrupulousness, [you] son of the devil, [you] enemy of all righteousness! Will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord!

11 And now behold, the hand of the Lord [is] against you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun {for a while}. And immediately mist and darkness fell over him, and he was going around looking for [people] to lead [him] by the hand.

12 Then [when] the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, [because he] was astounded at the teaching about the Lord.

13 Now {Paul and his companions} put out to sea from Paphos [and] came to Perga in Pamphylia, but John departed from them [and] returned to Jerusalem.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "until the time"
• [b] *In Greek the direct object ("people") is understood and must be supplied in the English translation; since the following noun is plural, "people" rather than "someone" is used here
• [c] *Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation