Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 23:3

"Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: and sittest thou to judge me according to the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?" — Acts 23:3 (ASV)

God shall smite you. God will punish you. God is just, and He will not allow such an obvious violation of all the laws of a fair trial to go unavenged. This was a remarkably bold and fearless declaration. Paul was surrounded by enemies. They were seeking his life, and he must have known that such declarations would have only provoked their anger and made them more thirsty for his blood.

That he could address the president of the council in this way was not only strongly characteristic of the man but was also strong proof that he was conscious of innocence and that justice was on his side. This expression of Paul, "God shall smite you," is not to be regarded as an imprecation or as an expression of angry feeling, but as a prediction, or a strong conviction in Paul's mind, that a man so hypocritical and unjust as Ananias could not escape the vengeance of God.

Ananias was killed, with Hezekiah his brother, during the unrest that occurred in Jerusalem when the robbers, or Sicarii, under their leader Manahem, had taken possession of the city. He attempted to hide in an aqueduct but was dragged out and killed. (See Josephus, Jewish Wars, Book 2, Chapter 17, Section 8.) Thus Paul's prediction was fulfilled.

You whited wall. This is clearly a proverbial expression, meaning you hypocrite. His hypocrisy consisted in his pretending to sit there to do justice; yet, by commanding the accused to be smitten in direct violation of the law, he thus showed that his character was not what he professed to be by sitting there, but that of one determined to carry out the purposes of his party and of his own feelings. Our Savior used a similar expression to describe the hypocritical character of the Pharisees (Matthew 23:27) when He compares them to whited sepulchres. A whited wall is a wall or enclosure that is covered with lime or gypsum and thus appears to be different from what it is, thereby aptly describing the hypocrite. Seneca (De Providentia, Chapter 6) uses a similar figure to describe hypocrites: "They are sordid, base, and like their walls adorned only externally." See also Seneca, Epistle 115.

For do you sit, etc. The law required that justice should be done, and for that purpose, it gave every man an opportunity of defending himself. (Proverbs 18:13; Leviticus 19:15; Exodus 23:1; Deuteronomy 19:15; Deuteronomy 19:18).

To judge me according to the law. As a judge, to hear and decide the case according to the rules of the law of Moses.

Contrary to the law. In violation of the law of Moses, Leviticus 19:35: "You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment."

{*} "shall smite" "will" {b} "contrary"Leviticus 19:35; Deuteronomy 25:1–2; John 7:51