And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
And being assembled together with them - not, as in the margin, 'eating with them,' which is to be disapproved. This appears to have been His very last meeting with them.
Commanded (or 'charged') them that they should not depart from Jerusalem. Why? Because it was God's high purpose to glorify the existing economy, by causing His Spirit to descend upon the disciples at its ancient seat, and on the occasion of the very first of its annual festivals after the ascension of the Church's Head; so fulfilling the sure word of prophecy, "Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:3, with which compare Luke 24:49).
But wait for the promise of the Father (or wait for what the Father had promised, meaning the gift of the Holy Spirit), which ye have heard of (or 'from') me. The historian here, in reporting what Jesus said, passes from the indirect to the direct form, in order to give the very words used; and this would have been sufficiently understood without the supplement, "saith he," of our version. The reference is to something said before that last interview, and so must be to those explicit promises of the Spirit which were made to the disciples at the supper table the night before He suffered (see John 14:16; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:7-11).