except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
23. But that the Holy Ghost. I do not understand this of secret oracles, but of those foretellings which he heard everywhere of the prophets. And this speech hath greater dignity to set forth the prophecies, than if the men themselves which spake were called and cited to be witnesses.
Paul sent for these elders not to leave them, but to instruct and encourage them in the work they had undertaken. His life among them, serious, gracious, heavenly, no self-seeking, proved God was truly with him and animated him by a better spirit than his own.
AI summary
Commenting on Acts 20:17-35
And now behold,.... This is not only a note of asseveration, but of attention, stirring up to observe what is here asserted: I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more; the sense is, that none of them should ever see him again, none of the churches of Asia, or the members of...