Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 7:28
Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
28. Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? ] For didst read killedst. The verb is repeated in the original.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wilt thou kill me … – How it was known that he had killed the Egyptian does not appear. It was probably communicated by the man who was rescued from the hands of the Egyptian, Exo 2:11-12.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
He charges this great crime upon Moses, to hinder him from further reproving of him: though recrimination do not make him, or any other, more innocent; yet men ordinarily use it, as if it were some satisfaction to them that they are not wicked alone, but that others are as bad or worse: this better befits an Egyptian than an Israelite.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28, 29. Wilt thou kill me, as thoudidst the Egyptian yesterday?Moses had thought the deed unseen(Ex 2:12), but it now appearedhe was mistaken.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 Ex 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 c;
“”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 Ex 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.
c Shemot Rabba, ib.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Wouldest thou kill me? ( ). Expecting the answer no, but a thrust direct at Moses, Do you wish to kill me (note right together,
me thou ). See Ex 2:14 quoted by Stephen.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) Wilt thou kill me,” (me anelein me su theleis) “You want to kill me, don’t you?” It may be noted that Moses in love sought the good and safety of his Hebrew people, even standing in the gap, interceding, praying to God, and even offering to die in their stead. His motives were, like our Lord’s impugned by his own brethren, Exo 32:31-32.
2) “As thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?” (on tropon aneiles echthes ton Aiguption) “in the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?” Exo 2:14. Moses did good and prayed for those who despitefully treated him, Mat 5:44; Act 7:60; Rom 12:14; Rom 12:20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
28. Was returning Very probably he may have been in Jerusalem at the time of Stephen’s martyrdom, when the city was rife with the name of Jesus and his Nazarenes.
In his chariot In vain, at the present day, does the traveller look for such a thing as a chariot in this country. This very desert is more a desert now than when the eunuch travelled by its route. The barbarism of the Mohammedan conquerors of the country has abolished all vehicles, and camels, mules, and asses are the only means of conveyance. A better day is coming when these vile intruders will be vanquished, and the railway will send its wonders through this land.
Reading The rabbies had a maxim which the eunuch here well practises: “The companionless traveller should employ his thoughts in study of the law.”
Esaias The Greek form for Isaiah.
28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
Ver. 28. Wilt thou kill me, &c. ] If this Hebrew had been well pleased, Moses had not heard of his slaughter; now in choler all will out. If this man’s tongue had not thus cast him in the teeth with blood, he had been surprised by Pharaoh, ere he could have known the fact was known; now he grows jealous, flees and escapes. No friend is so commodious in some cases as an adversary.
Act 7:28 . Cf. Exo 2:14 .
Wilt thou = Thou dost not (App-105) wish (App-102); me is used with questions, where a negative answer is expected.
kill. Greek. anaireo, as in Act 7:21.
diddest = killedst.
Act 7:28. , in the same way as) Those things are often known which we do not suppose are known concerning us.
Reciprocal: Mar 11:28 – General Act 7:24 – General Act 7:35 – Moses
8
Act 7:28. When Moses “looked this way and that way” (Exo 2:12), he either did not see everybody who was near, or the avenged Hebrew reported the event.
Act 7:28-29. Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled Moses at this saying. De Wette calls attention here to the history of Exodus, which relates how Moses, after his public act of rebellion against the state policy towards the Hebrews, fled from the face of Pharaoh, who was fearfully incensed that one of his own royal house should presume publicly to slay an official in the discharge of his duty, and by so doing signify his extreme disapproval of the policy of the king and his advisers (Exo 2:15). Stephen, on the other hand, seems to connect the flight of Moses with the rejection of his kinsmen. The two accounts, however, in no way contradict each other. When the act was publicly known, the Pharaohs court was, of course, no longer a home for the patriot prince who loved his own poor oppressed people better than the splendid future which lay before him if he would only forget his nationality (Heb 11:25-26). He was proscribed and disinherited at once, and was obliged to fly from the face of Pharaoh for his life; while the determined and stubborn hostility of the very race for whom he was making so great a sacrifice prevented him from seeking, as he naturally would under the circumstances of his exile have done, a place of concealment among them, where he might have concerted some plan of national deliverance.
In the land of Madian, or Midian. It was a part of Arabia Petraea, and lay along the eastern branch of the Red Sea, the Elanitic Gulf; it reached to the wilderness of Sinai on one side, and the territory of Moab on the other.
Gloag mentions that in some travels in the Middle Ages, there is an account of the ruins of a city called Madian, on the shores of the Elanitic Gulf. The Midianites of Jethros tribe were perhaps a nomad detachment of the people which wandered in the Arabian desert.
See notes on verse 17
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
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)