Acts 7:28

28 Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?'

Acts 7:28 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 7:28

Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
] That is, is it thy will? dost thou design to kill me? or, as in ( Exodus 2:14 ) "intendest" thou to kill me? In the Hebrew text it is, "wilt thou kill me, dost thou say?" that is, as Aben Ezra rightly interprets it, dost thou say so "in thine heart?" which is a much better observation than that of Jarchi's;

``from hence we learn, says he, that he slew him by the ineffable name:''

though this is the sense of some of their ancient doctors F3;

``"to kill me dost thou say?" it is not said, "dost thou seek?" but "dost thou say?" from whence you may learn, that the ineffable name was made mention of over the Egyptian, and he slew him.''

The word "yesterday" is added by Stephen, but with great truth and propriety, and is in the Septuagint version of ( Exodus 2:14 ) . The "as" here does not intend the manner of killing, whether by the fist or sword, or by pronouncing the word Jehovah, as Jarchi thinks, but killing itself, by whatsoever way; and the words were very spitefully said, on purpose to publish the thing, and to expose Moses to danger of life, as it did.


FOOTNOTES:

F3 Shemot Rabba, ib.

Acts 7:28 In-Context

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?'
29 Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.
30 And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.

Footnotes 1

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.