And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go.
35. When it was day. The question is, how it came to pass that the judges did so suddenly change their purpose? The day before they had commanded that Paul and Silas should be bound with fetters, as if they meant to punish them cruelly, now they let them go free.
The magistrates' early order to release them shows God at work: either the earthquake convinced them it was His hand, or their own consciences gave them no rest. While Paul and Silas sang in stocks, these men tossed sleepless, lashed by guilt far worse than any rod. God made the persecutors pity their prisoners.
AI summary
Commenting on Acts 16:35-40
And when it was day,.... In one copy Beza says, these words are added, "the magistrates came together in one place in the court, and remembering the earthquake that was made, they were afraid, and sent the sergeants;'' but they seem to be no other than a gloss, which crept into the text; however, it seems reasonable to suppose, that in the morning the magistrates...