Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make now unto you. (2) (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith),
I detain the Reader at the opening of Paul's address, to remark, with what composure the Apostle delivered his discourse, with what dignity of manners! and yet more worthy our notice, that he should speak unto them in the sacred language, in which, from the first, the Lord hath spoken unto his people. How exceedingly to be desired, would it be, had our minds a suitable reverence for the original tongue, to approach as near that standard of purity the Hebrew as possible, in all our solemn seasons. And especially when we call to mind, how graciously the Lord watched over his Church of old, to keep his people from the Ashdod language of the heathen. Behold! how the very tongue of Abraham the Hebrew, and his children, commanded the reverence and attention of Paul's enemies, while he spake to them in it, Nehemiah 13:23-25.