| Geneva Study Bible When they heard that, they {l} were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them. (l) This shows that they were in a most vehement rage, and tremendously disquieted in mind, for it is a borrowed kind of speech taken from those who are harshly cut in pieces with a saw. People's New Testament 5:33 Cut to the heart. Convulsed with rage, not sorrow. Took counsel to slay them. Concerning the expediency of putting them to death. Scofield Reference Notes Margin cut Cf. Acts 2:37. The Gospel when preached in the power of the Spirit convicts or enrages. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 33. cut to the heart and took-"were taking." counsel to slay them-How different this feeling and the effect of it from that "pricking of the heart" which drew from the first converts on the day of Pentecost the cry, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" (Ac 2:37). The words used in the two places are strikingly different. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 5:26-33 Many will do an evil thing with daring, yet cannot bear to hear of it afterward, or to have it charged upon them. We cannot expect to be redeemed and healed by Christ, unless we give up ourselves to be ruled by him. Faith takes the Saviour in all his offices, who came, not to save us in our sins, but to save us from our sins. Had Christ been exalted to give dominion to Israel, the chief priests would have welcomed him. But repentance and remission of sins are blessings they neither valued nor saw their need of; therefore they, by no means, admitted his doctrine. Wherever repentance is wrought, remission is granted without fail. None are freed from the guilt and punishment of sin, but those who are freed from the power and dominion of sin; who are turned from it, and turned against it. Christ gives repentance, by his Spirit working with the word, to awaken the conscience, to work sorrow for sin, and an effectual change in the heart and life. The giving of the Holy Ghost, is plain evidence that it is the will of God that Christ should be obeyed. And He will surely destroy those who will not have Him to reign over them. | 
