Acts Chapter 12 verse 21 Holy Bible
And upon a set day Herod arrayed himself in royal apparel, and sat on the throne, and made an oration unto them.
read chapter 12 in ASV
And on the day which had been fixed, Herod, dressed in his robes and seated in his place, made a public statement to them.
read chapter 12 in BBE
And on a set day, clothed in royal apparel and sitting on the elevated seat [of honour], Herod made a public oration to them.
read chapter 12 in DARBY
And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.
read chapter 12 in KJV
read chapter 12 in WBT
On an appointed day, Herod dressed himself in royal clothing, sat on the throne, and gave a speech to them.
read chapter 12 in WEB
and on a set day, Herod having arrayed himself in kingly apparel, and having sat down upon the tribunal, was making an oration unto them,
read chapter 12 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - Arrayed himself for arrayed, A.V.; and sat for sat, A.V. and T.R.; on the throne for upon his throne, A.V. On the throne. Βῆμα does not mean "the king's throne," and is nowhere so rendered in the A.V. but here. It means any raised stage or platform upon which a judge, or an orator, or any one wishing to address an assembly, stands. Here it means a high platform in the theatre at Caesarea, from whence the king, raised above the rest of the audience, could both see the games and make his speech to the people.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) And upon a set day . . .--Josephus (Ant. xix. 8, ? 2) gives an account of the incident that follows substantially agreeing with that here recorded. The scene was the theatre at Caesarea, which had been built by Herod the Great. Agrippa was celebrating games in honour of the Emperor Claudius, who had succeeded Caligula in A.D. 41, possibly in honour of his return from Britain in A.D. 44. He was arrayed in a robe of silver tissue, such as Caligula had been wont to wear at banquets and games in Rome, which glittered with a dazzling brightness under the rays of the morning sun. His courtiers, taking up the Roman fashion of showing honour to kings and emperors, hailed him as a god, and prayed him, as such, to be propitious to them. The king did not repress the flattery, which fell on the ears of all Jewish by-standers as a fearful blasphemy. He accepted for himself the divine honours which he had dissuaded Caligula from claiming. He looked up, and saw an owl perched on a rope behind him, and recognised in it an omen of evil, fulfilling a prediction which had been made to him by a fellow-prisoner during his confinement at Rome (Jos. Ant. xviii. 8). Sharp pain fell on him, and in five days he died.Comparing St. Luke's narrative with this, it seems probable that the delegates from Tyre and Sidon were among those who raised the cry, "Be thou propitious to us," and that their friend Blastus, knowing the weak point in Herod's character, had instructed them that this was the way to obtain his favour. We feel, as we read the narrative, the contrast between St. Peter's refusal even of Cornelius's attitude of homage, and Agrippa's acceptance of the profane apotheosis of the multitude.
