Acts 3:23

23 And it will be [that] every soul who does not listen to that prophet will be destroyed utterly from the people.'

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 whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all [things], about which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from earliest times.

22 Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You will listen to him in everything that he says to you.

23 And it will be [that] every soul who does not listen to that prophet will be destroyed utterly from the people.'

24 And indeed, all the prophets from Samuel and all those who followed [him] have spoken [about] and proclaimed these days.

25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God ordained with your fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed.'

Footnotes

• [a]. A quotation from Deut 18:19 and Lev 23:29