Acts 7:25-28

7:25 He thought his own people¹ would understand that God was delivering them² through him,³ but they did not understand.⁴ 7:26 The next day Moses⁵ saw two men⁶ fighting, and tried to make peace between⁷ them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why are you hurting one another?’ 7:27 But the man who was unfairly hurting his neighbor pushed⁸ Moses⁹ aside, saying, ‘Who made¹⁰ you a ruler and judge over us? 7:28 You don’t want to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’¹¹

¹tn Grk “his brothers.”

²tn Grk “was granting them deliverance.” The narrator explains that this act pictured what Moses could do for his people.

³tn Grk “by his hand,” where the hand is a metaphor for the entire person.

⁴sn They did not understand. Here is the theme of the speech. The people did not understand what God was doing through those he chose. They made the same mistake with Joseph at first. See Acts 3:17; 13:27. There is good precedent for this kind of challenging review of history in the ancient scriptures: Ps 106:6-46; Ezek 20; and Neh 9:6-38.

⁵tn Grk “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶tn Grk “saw them”; the context makes clear that two individuals were involved (v. 27).

⁷tn Or “tried to reconcile” (BDAG 964-65 s.v. συναλλάσσω).

⁸tn Or “repudiated Moses,” “rejected Moses” (BDAG 126-27 s.v. ἀπωθέω 2).

⁹tn Grk “him”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰tn Or “appointed.”

¹¹tn The Greek construction anticipates a negative reply which is indicated in the translation by the ‘tag’ at the end, “do you?”

sn A quotation from Exod 2:14. Even though a negative reply was expected, the question still frightened Moses enough to flee, because he knew his deed had become known. This understanding is based on the Greek text, not the Hebrew of the original setting. Yet the negative here expresses the fact that Moses did not want to kill the other man. Once again the people have badly misunderstood the situation.