Act 16:19-24 | PNT | STEP | When her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone . Nothing inflames the rage of men more than to see their hope of ill-gotten gains taken away. In our country more than one man has fallen a victim to the rage of rum-sellers who have seen their hope of gain taken away. Caught Paul and Silas . As the leaders of the missionary band. Drew [them] into the marketplace . The forum, or open square where meetings were held and the magistrates held their courts.

Acts 16:19-24

When her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone. Nothing inflames the rage of men more than to see their hope of ill-gotten gains taken away. In our country more than one man has fallen a victim to the rage of rum-sellers who have seen their hope of gain taken away.

Caught Paul and Silas. As the leaders of the missionary band.

Drew [them] into the marketplace. The forum, or open square where meetings were held and the magistrates held their courts. To the magistrates. Roman officers, two in number, called "duumviri", or praetors.

These men, being Jews. A great prejudice against Jews at this time existed in Europe. Near this time, Claudius Caesar expelled all Jews from Rome (Ac 18:2).

Do exceedingly trouble our city. Raise disturbances. Teach customs . . . not lawful. According to Howson, Roman law sternly forbade one not a Jew to be circumcised. Paul and Silas did not teach this, but it was a safe charge to make, they being Jews. The multitude rose up together against them. Inflamed with prejudice.

The magistrates. Without inquiry, influenced by the outcries of the throng.

Rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat [them]. They ordered them at once to be scourged. The lictors, the executioners, were at hand. The Roman custom was to lay bare the body and to beat it with the rods borne by the lictors. Paul says, "Thrice was I beaten with rods" (2Co 11:25). Laid many stripes upon them. Moses mercifully restricted the number of stripes (De 25:3); hence, Paul says: "Five times I received of the Jews forty stripes, save one" (2Co 11:24). With the Romans there was no such restriction. Thrust them into the inner prison. A damp interior cell from which all light was excluded.

The stocks. An instrument of torture as well as confinement. The feet, stretched wide apart, were thrust through holes in a wall of wood, and the prisoner was fastened there.