Gevurot 22:2

2 And when they heard that Rav Sha’ul was addressing them in the language of the Hebrews, they were even more quiet. And Rav Sha’ul said,

Gevurot 22:2 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 22:2

And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to
them (See Gill on Acts 21:40).

they kept the more silence;
it being their mother tongue, and which they best understood; and which the captain and the Roman soldiers might not so well under stand; and chiefly because the Hellenistic language was not so agreeable to them, nor the Hellenistic Jews, who spoke the Greek language, and used the Greek version of the Bible; and such an one they took Paul to be, besides his being a Christian; wherefore when they heard him speak in the Hebrew tongue, it conciliated their minds more to him, at least engaged their attention the more to what he was about to say:

and he saith;
the Syriac and Ethiopic versions add, "to them", as follows.

Gevurot 22:2 In-Context

1 2 Rav Sha’ul said, "Anashim, Achim, Avot, listen now to my hitstaddekut (defense)."

2 And when they heard that Rav Sha’ul was addressing them in the language of the Hebrews, they were even more quiet. And Rav Sha’ul said,

3 "I am an ish Yehudi, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but having been brought up in a yeshiva in this city of Yerushalayim at the feet of Rabban Gamliel, having learned with irreproachable frumkeit according to all machmir chumra strictness the Torah of Avoteinu, and I have a kinat Hashem just as all of you do today; [MELACHIM ALEF 19:10]

4 "I brought redifah on this ‘Derech,’ even to the point of mavet, binding and delivering both anashim and nashim over to the beis hasohar,

5 "As even the Kohen Gadol and all the Zekenim of the Sanhedrin could give solemn eidus for me. For from them I also was authorized with iggrot to the Achim in Damascus, and I was going there to lead away also the ones who were there in order to bring them bound back to Yerushalayim to have them punished.