Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 21:13

"Then Paul answered, What do ye, weeping and breaking my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." — Acts 21:13 (ASV)

What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart?—Better, What do you mean, weeping and breaking...? The intense sensitiveness of St. Paul’s nature shows itself in every syllable. It was with no Stoic hardness that he resisted their entreaties. They were positively crushing to him. He adhered to his purpose, but it was as with a broken heart.

In spite of this, however, his martyr-like, Luther-like nature carried him forward. Bonds and imprisonment!—these he had heard of when he was yet at Corinth and Ephesus, before he had started on his journey; but what were they to one who was ready to face death?

The pronouns are throughout emphatic. “You are breaking my heart. I, for my part, am ready . . .”