Act 16:22-23 | JFB | STEP | 22. the multitude rose up together against them —so . the magistrates rent off their —Paul's and Silas' clothes —that is, ordered the lictors, or rod-bearers, to tear them off, so as to expose their naked bodies (see on ). The word expresses the roughness with which this was done to prisoners preparatory to whipping. and commanded to beat them —without any trial ( ), to appease the popular rage. Thrice, it seems, Paul endured this indignity ( ).

Acts 16:22-23

22. the multitude rose up together against them—so Ac 19:28, 34; 21:30; Lu 23:18.

the magistrates rent off their—Paul's and Silas'

clothes—that is, ordered the lictors, or rod-bearers, to tear them off, so as to expose their naked bodies (see on Ac 16:37). The word expresses the roughness with which this was done to prisoners preparatory to whipping.

and commanded to beat them—without any trial (Ac 16:37), to appease the popular rage. Thrice, it seems, Paul endured this indignity (2Co 11:25).

23, 24. when they had laid many stripes upon them—the bleeding wounds from which they were not washed till it was done by the converted jailer (Ac 16:33).

charged the jailer . . . who . . . thrust them into the inner prison—"pestilential cells, damp and cold, from which the light was excluded, and where the chains rusted on the prisoners. One such place may be seen to this day on the slope of the Capitol at Rome" [HOWSON].