Acts 16:22 (LSB)

Passage

And the crowd joined together to attack them, and the chief magistrates, tearing their garments off of them, proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods.

Nearby Context

Acts 16:20 and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews,

Acts 16:21 and are proclaiming customs that are not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.”

Acts 16:22 And the crowd joined together to attack them, and the chief magistrates, tearing their garments off of them, proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods.

Acts 16:23 And when they had inflicted them with many wounds, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely,

Acts 16:24 who, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "crowd", "joined", "together", "attack", "chief", "magistrates", "tearing", and "garments". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "crowd" and "joined", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 21's "and are proclaiming customs that are not..." into verse 23's "And when they had inflicted them with...", so "crowd" and "joined" belong inside that flow. In Acts context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "crowd" and "joined" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.