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Acts 13:10

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Acts 13:10

Verse 10 of 52

Scripture focus

And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, [thou] child of the devil, [thou] enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

Acts 13:10 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Acts 13:10

Theological / Devotional

All subtilty and all mischief. The word translated “mischief” is unique in the NT, originally meaning “ease in working,” but here “shiftiness” and “trickery.” Paul, filled with the Spirit, explicitly condemned Elymas’s deceit. The Spirit leads messengers to identify and condemn sin frankly.

Child of the devil. See John 8:44. As the devil is the father of lies, Elymas, a deceiver, is aptly called so. If Bar-jesus means “Son of Joshua” (“Jehovah is salvation”), Paul’s epithet contrasts strikingly.

Enemy of all righteousness. Paul saw Sergius Paulus’s earnest desire for truth and was wrathful at Elymas for interfering.

Pervert the right ways. Elymas twisted God’s true way into crooked paths of human subtlety, reversing Isaiah’s preparation of the Lord’s way (Isa. 40:4).

By SdaBc