Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 13:41

"Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; For I work a work in your days, A work which ye shall in no wise believe, if one declare it unto you." — Acts 13:41 (ASV)

Behold, ye despisers.—The quotation is from the LXX version, the Hebrew text stating, “Behold, ye among the heathen.” So, in the next clause, “wonder, and perish” takes the place of “wonder marvellously.” The fact that St. Paul quotes from the prophet (Habakkuk 1:5) whose teaching (Habakkuk 2:4) that the just by faith shall live becomes from then on the axiom of his life, holds a special interest.

The “work” of which the prophet spoke was defined in the following verse as the raising up of the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, to execute God’s judgment. St. Paul may have had in his thoughts the like judgment about to be executed by the Romans, and already known as foretold by Christ (Matthew 24:2–28), or may have thus dimly indicated that which was so closely connected with it—the rejection of Israel, because they, as a nation, had rejected Christ. The sharp tone of warning, as in St. Stephen’s speech (see Note on Acts 7:51), suggests the thought that signs of anger and impatience had already begun to show themselves.