And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.
18. He suffered their manners. The compound verb hath greater force and grace in the Greek, whereby the mercifulness of God is expressed in suffering the people, whom he knew to be stubborn and disobedient. And Paul giveth us to understand again, that the election of God was the cause that his goodness did strive with the wickedness of the people. “Sustinendo populo,” in sustaining the people.
Luke passes over Perga in silence, though Diana's temple stood there, because the whole world could not contain all that might be written. Paul and Barnabas went straight to the synagogue at Antioch, not to curry favor with magistrates, but to the Jews themselves, proving their true care for their souls. This was always the way: to show how the New Testament flows directly from the Old, which the Jews already held sacred.
AI summary
Commenting on Acts 13:14-41
And about the time of forty years,.... From their coming out of Egypt, to their entrance into the land of Canaan: suffered he their manners in the wilderness; which were very perverse and provoking; as their murmuring for water, their rebellion against Moses and Aaron, their idolatry and the ill report brought on the good land by their spies; and yet the Lord fed them...