Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 28:2

"And the barbarians showed us no common kindness; for they kindled a fire, and received us all, because of the present rain, and because of the cold." — Acts 28:2 (ASV)

And the barbarous people. (See Barnes on Romans 1:14).

The Greeks regarded all as barbarians who did not speak their language and applied this name to all nations other than their own. The term does not signify, as it sometimes does for us, people of savage, uncultivated, and cruel habits, but simply those whose speech was unintelligible. (See 1 Corinthians 14:11).

The island is thought to have been populated first by the Phoecians, then by the Phoenicians, and later by a colony from Carthage. The language of the Maltese was that of Africa, and for this reason, the Greeks called it the language of barbarians. It was a language unintelligible to the Greeks and Latins.

The rain. This refers to the continuance of the storm.

And of the cold. This refers to the exposure to the water in getting to the shore, and probably to the coldness of the weather. It was now in the month of October.