Acts 13:11 - Exposition

Is upon thee ; or rather, against thee ( Matthew 10:21 ; Matthew 26:55 ; Luke 11:17 ; and Luke 11:50 of this chapter). For a season . It has been well observed that this limitation in time is an indication that there was place for repentance. It was a remedial chastisement. A mist ( ἀχλύς ); only here in the New Testament; but it is a medical term, very common in Hippocrates, to express a darkening and dimming of the eyes by cataract or other disease. As regards the reason why the particular punishment of blindness was inflicted upon Elymas, it might be to put a forcible interruption upon those observations of the stars and clouds by which the magician pretended to foresee the future. It would exhibit, too, to Sergius, Paulus the utter helplessness of the great necromancer. Some to lead him by the hand ( χειραγωγούς ) , as Saul had needed χειραγωγοῦντας when he was struck blind by the vision of the Savior's glory ( Acts 9:8 ).