Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 7:7
And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
7. after that shall they come forth ] The first prophecy (Gen 15:14) of this Exodus adds “with great substance.”
and serve me in this place ] These words are not in the promise given to Abraham, but are taken from Exo 3:12, where the original promise is repeated and sent to the Israelites through Moses, and the place meant in that verse is Sinai, called there Horeb, the mountain of God. Stephen in his speech combines the two that he may describe the promise in its fulness, and he mentions the worship of God in that place, because the one great object of his address is to demonstrate that what is laid to his charge concerning the highest worship of God being no longer restricted to the Temple and Jerusalem, is nothing more than they were taught by a study of their own history.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the nation … – Referring particularly to the Egyptians.
Will I judge – The word judge, in the Bible, often means to execute judgment as well as to pronounce it; that is, to punish. See Joh 18:31; Joh 3:17; Joh 8:50; Joh 12:47; Act 24:6; 1Co 5:13, etc. It has this meaning here. God regarded their oppressive acts as deserving His indignation, and He evinced it in the plagues with which He visited upon them, and in their overthrow at the Red Sea.
Shall serve me – Shall worship me, or be regarded as my people.
In this place – That is, in the place where God made this promise to Abraham. These words are not found in Genesis, but similar words are found in Exo 3:12, and it was a practice, in making quotations, to quote the sense only, or to connect two or more promises having relation to the same thing.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. Will I judge] , I will punish, for in this sense the Greek word is frequently taken. “When,” says Bp. Pearce, “a malefactor is brought before a judge, the judge does three things:
1. he tries or judges him;
2. he then gives his judgment or sentence; and,
3. he puts the law in execution, and punishes him.
Hence , at different times, signifies each of these things; and the sense of the word is to be determined by the context. Here it signifies to punish, as is used for punishment, in Ro 13:2; 1Co 11:29, compared with 1Co 11:30-31.” The Egyptians, to whom the Israelites were in bondage, were punished by the ten plagues, described Ex 7:19-12:30
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Will I judge, or punish; and so the Egyptians were punished, not by human means, but by Divine power, and with Gods own immediate hand, and that in the fulness of time, the very night in which Gods promise was to take effect: and therefore it is a night to be much observed, Exo 12:42, as showing, that the sabbath of his people, and the destruction of his enemies, slumber not, 2Pe 2:3.
Serve me in this place; in Mount Horeb. The reason why God delivers his people is, that they may serve him, as Luk 1:74,75; and so long as God hath any work for them to do in this world, he will preserve and deliver them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. after that shall they come forth,and serve me in this placeHere the promise to Abraham (Ge15:16), and that to Moses (Ex3:12), are combined; Stephen’s object being merely to give arapid summary of the leading facts.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage,…. At the end of the four hundred years, and which was the Egyptian nation:
I will judge, said God; that is, condemn and punish them, as he did, by inflicting the ten plagues upon them:
and after that they shall come forth; out of the land of Egypt, and their hard bondage there; and which was brought about by the judgments executed upon the Egyptians:
and serve me in this place; in the land of Canaan; though these words are not to be found in Ge 15:13 what comes nearest them is in Ex 3:12. “Ye shall serve God upon this mountain”; meaning Mount Horeb, where Moses then was, and from whence the law was afterwards given.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Will I judge ( ). Future (accent on ) active indicative of and (I) expressed is emphatic.
In this place ( ). Quoted from Ex 3:12 and referring to Sinai or Horeb, but Stephen applies it to the Promised Land.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage,” (kai to ethnos ho ean douleusousin) “And the other nation which they will serve,” in bondage, slavery, or servitude, a state of slavery, the nation of Egypt, Exo 20:1-2.
2) “Will I judge, said God:” (krino ego ho theos eipen) “I will judge, God afore-said,” or God asserted to Abraham, referring to the ten plague judgments that were to come and did come, upon Egypt which held Israel in bondage, servitude, Exo 3:6-12.
3) “And after that shall they come forth,” (kai meta tauta ekseleusontai) “And after these experiences they will come forth out of or from that land, of their own faith, will, and accord, Exo 6:4; Exo 6:6; Exo 6:6-8.
4) “And serve me in this place,” (kai latreusousin moi en to topo touto) “And they will offer worship service to me in this specific place or locality;” in the land grant territory described to Abraham, Gen 9:13-15; Gen 15:18; Exo 14:29-30.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
7. The nation whom they shall serve. This judgment is joined with the deliverance of the people. For, whereas God doth punish the cruelty and tyranny of the wicked Egyptians, he doth that for his people’s sake, whom he took into his tuition, that it may be seen that he is the deliverer of his Church. Therefore, so often as we are unjustly afflicted by the wicked, let us remember that God is the Judge of the world, who will let no injuries be unpunished. Let every man thus think with himself, Seeing that I am under the tuition of God, who is the Judge of the world, and to whom it belongeth to punish all injuries, those shall not escape his hand who trouble me now. There is the like place in Deu 32:43, where God saith that vengeance is his. Whence Paul gathereth that we must give place to wrath, (Rom 12:19😉 as if he should say, that this ought to serve to reform impatience, and to bridle our evil affections, in that God promiseth that he will revenge; for he which revengeth himself doth take God’s office from him. And let us still remember that which I have already said, that God is touched with an especial care to revenge injuries done to his children, as it is in the Psalm, “Hurt not mine anointed, and be not troublesome to my prophets.”
They shall come thence and serve me. Therefore their deliverance went before the temple and the worship of the law; whereupon it followeth, that the grace of God was not tied to ceremonies. Nevertheless, Stephen noteth the end of their deliverance, that God chose both a peculiar people and a peculiar place for the true worship of his name. Whence we gather again, that we must regard what he commandeth and alloweth. Other nations also were determined to worship God; but because their rites were corrupt and bastardly, (384) God doth separate the Jews from the rest, and assigneth them a place where he will have them to worship him sincerely and duly as they ought. This place teacheth us, that God’s benefits must be referred to this end, that men might be brought to addict and give over themselves wholly to him. Now, since that God hath dispersed the treasures of his grace throughout the whole world, we must endeavor to sanctify him, by worshipping him purely and holily, in what country soever we dwell.
(384) “ Degeneres,” degenerate.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) And after that shall they come forth.The verse combines the promise to Abraham in Gen. 15:17 with a free rendering of the sign given to Moses (Exo. 3:12), which referred not to Canaan but to Horeb. What St. Stephen does is to substitute with the natural freedom of a narrative given from memory the words they shall serve me for the simpler phrase, they shall come hither again, of Genesis. The whole context is at variance with the assumption that St. Stephen meant the last words of the verse to be taken as applying to the mount of God.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Will I judge Will perform the entire office of a judge in condemning, and, with the proper instrumentality, in executing the penalty. Shall
come forth This last clause was spoken not to Abraham, but (Exo 3:12) by God to Moses; yet is properly quoted by Stephen as expressing God’s purpose even in the time of Abraham.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7. Unclean spirits Demoniacs were not limited to Judea, nor to the time of the Saviour. It is to be noted that they are expressly distinguished from the diseased, namely, the palsied and the lame.
‘And the nation to which they will be in bondage I will judge, said God, and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.’
And eventually God would act. God would judge those who held them in bondage, after which, God said, “they will come out and serve Me ‘in this place’.” In Exo 3:12 ‘in this place’ signified the mountain of God, and as Stephen has put the words on God’s lips it is probable that he intends the original context to stand. This is thus the first instance where he stresses that ordained worship of God is to be away from the land in a place chosen by God (note how he later stresses ‘the wilderness Tabernacle’).
The assumption here is that God will eventually raise up a ‘judge’ (‘I will judge’) and a deliverer, and it is thus no accident that when Moses appears to present himself to the people he does so as ruler and ‘judge’ (compare ‘and a judge’ in Act 7:27).
This all makes clear that the land was to be a reward in the future, while future worship was not tied to the land. The land was thus not an essential foundation of their religious life. It was to be seen as the blessing to come.
7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
Ver. 7. And serve me in this place ] Servati sumus ut serviamus, Luk 1:74 . The redeemed (among the Romans) was to be at the service of the redeemer all his days.
7. ] is inserted by Stephen in passing from the narrative form ( . ) into the direct ( . ).
Act 7:7 . The oratio recta is introduced by the words emphatic, cf. Rom 12:19 . In this verse the quotation is a free rendering of Gen 15:14 , the words being omitted after and the latter part of the verse being apparently introduced from Exo 3:12 . And so at length, after so long a time, God appointed for Himself a “holy place,” cf. Act 6:13 (Blass). , cf. LXX, Gen 15:14 , and see critical note above, cf. also Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses , p. 123.
nation. Greek. ethnos. See note on Act 4:25, Act 4:27.
to whom, &c. = whom they shall serve. Greek. douleuo. App-190.
judge. Greek. krino. App-122.
that = these things.
serve = worship. Greek. latreuo. App-137. Compare Exo 3:12.
7.] is inserted by Stephen in passing from the narrative form ( . ) into the direct (. ).
Act 7:7. ) Exo 3:12, LXX., . These words spoken to him Moses records of the place, Horeb, not excluding the land of Canaan: Ibid. Act 7:8. For if service (worship) on Horeb was a sign of Moses mission, Exo 3:12, much more service in the land of Canaan was a sign. Therefore Stephen has woven together the oracles given to Abraham and Moses, in this sense; They shall go forth from the land of bondage (this was said to both Abraham and Moses), and shall come to Horeb, and shall serve the Lord in this place; and shall come thence into the land of Canaan, and shall serve the Lord. In thus weaving together these things, he shows in a strong way, (1) that what was said to Moses as to the worship of Israel towards GOD, was already in the time of Abraham divinely intended and meant: (2) that they were taught in Horeb to serve GOD for this purpose, that they might worship Him perpetually in the land of Canaan, Act 7:44 : (3) that the worship in Horeb was very much curtailed by the people [owing to their idolatry of the calf], Act 7:40-41, and was rather rendered at length when they entered into the land of Canaan; Act 7:45, They shall serve Me, is the expression used; they shall not, as previously, serve the Egyptians; they shall serve in freedom, as Priests.
the nation: Gen 15:14-16, Exo 7:1 – Exo 14:31, Neh 9:9-11, Psa 74:12-14, Psa 78:43-51, Psa 105:27-36, Psa 135:8, Psa 135:9, Psa 136:10-15, Isa 51:9, Isa 51:10
and serve: Exo 3:12
Reciprocal: Gen 15:13 – thy Eze 16:4 – for
7
Act 7:7. Will I judge refers to the plagues that God brought upon the Egyptians (Exodus 7-12). Serve me in this place means their service at Mount Sinai.
Act 7:7. And serve me in this place. A quotation from the words of the Eternal spoken to Moses in the burning bush on Mount Horeb: In this placethat is, where I now speak to thee. In the passage of Exo 3:12, the words are: Ye shall serve God upon the mountain, again reminding the elders of Israel from their own holy oracles that God was to be found in other countries besides the Holy Land, that He was to be worshipped in other places besides in that holy house on Zion. Did He not manifest Himself as visibly and resplendently in the burning thorn of the wilderness as ever He did on the golden mercy-seat of the sacred ark of the covenant?
See notes on verse 5
Verse 7
Judge; punish.
God promised to punish the nations that oppressed Israel (Gen 12:3) and to bring her back into the land ("this place") eventually (Gen 15:13). God had told Moses that he would bring the Israelites out of Egypt and that they would worship Him at Mt. Sinai (Exo 3:12). Stephen’s point was that God had promised to punish those who oppressed His people. The Jews had been oppressing the Christians by prohibiting their preaching and even flogging them (Act 4:18; Act 5:40). Gamaliel had warned that if the Christians were correct the Jewish leaders would be fighting against God by opposing them (Act 5:39). God’s promise to judge His people’s oppressors went back into the Abrahamic Covenant, which the Jews treasured and Stephen reminded them of here.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)