Immediately he took some soldiers and centurions and ran down to the crowd. When the people saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
32. And when they saw the chief captain. Those whose fury neither the majesty of God, nor yet the reverence of the temple, could once stay, begin to relent when they see a profane man. Whereby it appeareth that they were set on fire rather with barbarous cruelty than zeal. Now, whereas the chief captain bindeth Paul with chains, he declareth thereby sufficiently that he came not to ease him.
We have here Paul brought into a captivity which we are not likely to see the end of; for after this he is either hurried from one bar to another, or lies neglected, first in one prison and then in another, and can neither be tried nor bailed. When we see the beginning of a trouble, we know not either how long it will last or how it will issue.
Commenting on Acts 21:27-40
Who immediately took soldiers and centurions,.... A very large number of soldiers, for they are called an army, in Act 23:27 with a sufficient number of officers called centurions, who were each of them over an hundred men, to command them, and put them in order: and ran down unto them: from the tower to the temple, the outer part of it; perhaps the mountain...