THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES - Chapter 19 - Verse 28

Verse 28. Were full of wrath. Were greatly enraged—probably at the prospect of losing their gains.

Great is Diana, etc. The term great was often applied by the Greeks to Diana. Thus in Xenophon (Ephes. i.) he says, "I adjure you by your own goddess, the great (thn megalhn) Diana of the Ephesians." The design of this clamour was doubtless to produce a persecution against Paul; and thus to secure a continuance of their employment. Often, when men have no arguments, they raise a clamour; when their employments are in danger of being ruined, they are filled with rage. We may learn, also, that when men's pecuniary interests are affected, they often show great zeal for religion, and expect by clamour in behalf of some doctrine, to maintain their own interest, and to secure their own gains.

{b} "full of wrath, and cried out" Jer 50:38