7. the men . . . stood speechless--This may mean
merely that they remained so; but if the standing posture be
intended, we have only to suppose that though at first they "all fell
to the earth"
(Ac 26:14),
they arose of their own accord while Saul yet lay prostrate.
hearing a--rather "the"
voice--Paul himself says, "they heard not the voice of Him that spake
to me"
(Ac 22:9).
But just as "the people that stood by heard" the voice that
saluted our Lord with recorded words of consolation and assurance, and
yet heard not the articulate words, but thought "it thundered"
or that some "angel spake to Him"
(Joh 12:28, 29)
--so these men heard the voice that spake to Saul, but heard not
the articulate words. Apparent discrepancies like these, in the
different narratives of the same scene in one and the same book of
Acts, furnish the strongest confirmation both of the facts themselves
and of the book which records them.
JFB.
Picture Study Bible