Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 20:3

"And when he had spent three months [there,] and a plot was laid against him by Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he determined to return through Macedonia." — Acts 20:3 (ASV)

And there abode. Why he remained here is unknown. It is probable that while in Greece he wrote the Epistle to the Romans. .

Laid wait. There was a design formed against him by the Jews, which they sought to execute. Why they formed this purpose, the historian has not informed us.

As he was about to sail. It would seem from this that the design of the Jews was to attack the ship in which he was about to sail, or to arrest him on shipboard. This fact determined him to take a much more circuitous route by land, so that the churches of Macedonia were favoured with another visit from him.

Into Syria. On his way to Jerusalem.

He purposed. He resolved to avoid the snare which they had laid for him, and to return by the same way in which he had come into Greece.