Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 10:9

"Now on the morrow, as they were on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour:" — Acts 10:9 (ASV)

As they went on their journey . . .—The distance from Caesarea to Joppa was about thirty Roman miles.

To pray about the sixth hour.—As in Acts 3:1, we again find Saint Peter observing the Jewish hours of prayer. The “hunger” mentioned in the next verse implies that up to that time he had partaken of no food, and makes it probable that it was one of the days, the second and fifth in the week, which the Pharisees and other devout Jews observed as fasts. The flat housetop of an Eastern house was commonly used for prayer and meditation (Matthew 24:17; Luke 17:31), and in a city like Joppa, and a house like that of the tanner, was probably the only place accessible for such a purpose.