Acts 19:38

Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow-workmen want to accuse anyone about anything bad, they should do it in the right way. There are courts that you can go to when you want to accuse someone, and there are judges there who have been appointed by the government { whom the government has appointed}. You can accuse anyone there.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies: let them implead one another.

In Context

37You should not have brought these two men here, because they have not done anything evil. They have not gone into our temples and taken things from there. And they have not spoken evil of our goddess.

39But if you want to ask about something else, you should ask for other officials to resolve it when those officials legally assemble.

Read all of Acts 19

Cross References

Deuteronomy 17:8“Sometimes it will be very difficult for a judge to decide what really happened. He might be trying to decide whether, when someone injured or killed another person, he did it accidentally or deliberately. Or he might be trying to decide if some person is suing another person unfairly. If in some town it is very difficult to know what really happened, with the result that the judge cannot decide it, you should go to the place that Yahweh our God has chosen for you to worship him.

Acts 18:14When Paul was about to speak [MTY] to defend himself, Gallio said to the Jews, “If this man had acted deceitfully or disobeyed any of our Roman laws, I would listen patiently to what you Jews want to tell me.

Matthew Henry on Acts 19:22-41

The Tumult at Ephesus. 21 After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. 22 So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. 23 And the same time there arose no small stir about that way. 24 For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Acts 19:38