SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:42
¶ Y Dios se apart, y los entreg que sirviesen al ejrcito del cielo; como est escrito en el libro de los profetas: ¿Me ofrecisteis víctimas y sacrificios en el desierto por cuarenta aos, Casa de Israel?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Acts 7:42
Verse 42. Then God turned, and gave them up, &c.] He left them to themselves, and then they deified and worshipped the sun, moon, planets, and principal stars. In the book of the prophets] As this quotation is found in Amos, Amos v. 25, by the book of the prophets is meant the twelve minor prophets, which, in the ancient Jewish division of the sacred writings, formed only one book.
Have ye offered to me slain beasts] It is certain that the Israelites did offer various sacrifices to God, while in the wilderness; and it is as certain that they scarcely ever did it with an upright heart. They were idolatrous, either in heart or act, in almost all their religious services; these were therefore so very imperfect that they were counted for nothing in the sight of God; for this seems to be strongly implied in the question here asked, Have ye offered to ME (exclusively and with an upright heart) slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years? On the contrary, these forty years were little else than a tissue of rebellion and idolatry.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 42. Then God turned , etc.] Away from them, withdrew his presence, and his favours from them: and gave them up to worship the host of heaven ; not angels, but the sun, moon, and stars; for since they liked not to retain the knowledge and worship of the true God, who made the heavens, and the earth, God in righteous judgment, in a judicial way, gave them up to a reprobate mind, to commit all the idolatry of the Gentiles, as a punishment of their former sin in making and worshipping the calf: as it is written in the book of the prophets ; of the twelve lesser prophets, which were all in one book; and which, as the Jews say f366 , were put together, that a book of them might not be lost through the smallness of it; among which Amos stands, a passage in whose prophecy is here referred to; namely, in ( Amos 5:25) O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness; no; they offered to devils, and not to God, ( Deuteronomy 32:17) and though there were some few sacrifices offered up; yet since they were not frequently offered, nor freely, and with all the heart, and with faith, and without hypocrisy, they were looked upon by God as if they were not offered at all.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 42-50 - Stephen upbraids the Jews with the idolatry of their fathers, to whic God gave them up as a punishment for their early forsaking him. It wa no dishonour, but an honour to God, that the tabernacle gave way to the temple; so it is now, that the earthly temple gives way to the spiritual one; and so it will be when, at last, the spiritual shal give way to the eternal one. The whole world is God's temple, in whic he is every where present, and fills it with his glory; what occasio has he then for a temple to manifest himself in? And these things sho his eternal power and Godhead. But as heaven is his throne, and the earth his footstool, so none of our services can profit Him who mad all things. Next to the human nature of Christ, the broken an spiritual heart is his most valued temple.
Greek Textus Receptus
εστρεψεν 4762 5656 V-AAI-3S δε 1161 CONJ ο 3588 T-NSM θεος 2316 N-NSM και 2532 CONJ παρεδωκεν 3860 5656 V-AAI-3S αυτους 846 P-APM λατρευειν 3000 5721 V-PAN τη 3588 T-DSF στρατια 4756 N-DSF του 3588 T-GSM ουρανου 3772 N-GSM καθως 2531 ADV γεγραπται 1125 5769 V-RPI-3S εν 1722 PREP βιβλω 976 N-DSF των 3588 T-GPM προφητων 4396 N-GPM μη 3361 PRT-N σφαγια 4968 N-APN και 2532 CONJ θυσιας 2378 N-APF προσηνεγκατε 4374 5656 V-AAI-2P μοι 3427 P-1DS ετη 2094 N-APN τεσσαρακοντα 5062 A-NUI εν 1722 PREP τη 3588 T-DSF ερημω 2048 A-DSF οικος 3624 N-NSM ισραηλ 2474 N-PRI
Vincent's NT Word Studies
42. To worship (latreuein). Rev., more correctly, serve. See on Luke i. 74.The host of heaven. Star-worship, or Sabaeanism, the remnant of the ancient heathenism of Western Asia, which consisted in the worship of the stars, and spread into Syria, though the Chaldaean religion was far from being the simple worship of the host of heaven; the heavenly bodies being regarded as real persons, and not mere metaphorical representations of astronomical phenomena. It is to the Sabaean worship that Job alludes when, in asserting the purity of his life (xxxi. 26, 27), he says: "If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hands: this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above." Though not a part of the religion of the Egyptians, Rawlinson thinks it may have been connected with their earlier belief, since prayer is represented in hieroglyphics by a man holding up his hands, accompanied by a star (Herodotus, vol. ii., p. 291).
Robertson's NT Word Studies
7:42 {Gave them up} (paredwken). First aorist active indicative of paradidwmi. this same form occurs three times like clods on a coffin in a grave in #Ro 1:24,26,28 where Paul speaks of God giving the heathen up to their lusts. {To serve the host of heaven} (latreuein tei stratiai tou ouranou). The verb latreuw is used of the worship of God (#Mt 4:10) as well as of idols as here (from latron, hire, latris, hireling, qen to serve). But the worship of the host of heaven (#De 17:3; 2Ki 17:16; 21:3; 2Ch 33:3,5; Jer 8:2; 19:13) is Sabaism or worship of the host (stratia) of heaven (sun, moon, and stars) instead of the Lord of hosts. this star-worship greatly injured the Jews. {In the book of the prophets} (en biblwi twn profetwn). That is the twelve minor prophets which the Jews counted as one book (cf. #Ac 13:40). this quotation is from #Am 5:25-27. The greater prophets were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. {Slain beasts} (sfagia). Here only in the N.T. (from #Am 5:25) sfage, slaughter, sfazw, to slay.
