Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 23:21

"Do not thou therefore yield unto them: for there lie in wait for him of them more than forty men, who have bound themselves under a curse, neither to eat nor to drink till they have slain him: and now are they ready, looking for the promise from thee." — Acts 23:21 (ASV)

The seriousness with which the commander took the warning about the plot shows that he knew Ananias was the kind of man who could support such action and realized that Jewish feeling against Paul was strong enough to nurture it.