Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.
Unto which promise our twelve tribes ( James 1:1, and see the note at Luke 2:36 ).
Instantly, [en (G1722) ekteneia (G1616)] - or, 'intently' (cf. Acts 12:5, Gr.)
Serving God, [latreuon (G3000)] - 'offering worship' (see the note on the word "ministered," Acts 13:2)
Day and night ('night and day'), hope to come. The apostle rises into language as catholic as the thought which he expresses-representing his despised nation, all scattered though it now was, as twelve great branches of one ancient stem, in all places of their dispersion offering to the God of their fathers one unbroken worship, reposing on one great "promise" made of old unto their fathers, and sustained by one "hope" of "coming" to its fulfillment; the single point of difference between him and his countrymen, and the one cause of all their virulence against him, being, that his hope had found rest in One already come, while theirs still pointed to the future.
For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews - or (without the article), 'of Jews;' of all quarters the most surprising for such a charge to come from. The charge of sedition is not so much as alluded to throughout this speech; it was indeed a mere pretext.