When daylight came, the magistrates sent their officers with the order: “Release those men.”
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.
In these verses we have, I. Orders sent for the discharge of Paul and Silas out of prison Act 16:35, Act 16:36. 1. The magistrates that had so basely abused them the day before gave the orders; and their doing it so early, as soon as it was day, intimates that either they were sensible the terrific earthquake they felt at midnight was intended to...
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...