Translation
And they were all thrown out of position
Go to footnote numberand could find no way out whatsoever.
Go to footnote numberThey were saying other to other, “What wishes this to be?”
Go to footnote numberParaphrase
All of them were overwhelmed with astonishment and utterly perplexed.
Each one was saying to another one near him, “What is the purpose of what we are witnessing here?”
Footnotes
1
This is the same verb used in verse 7 which I describe as “displaced, or out of position.” It comes from the preposition “out of” and the verb “stand or standing.” Thus, it points to someone who has been “removed from a fixed position” either by going crazy or by being overwhelmed with amazement.
2
“no way out”: This word is made up of the preposition “through” which serves here as an intensifier, we would say “thoroughly or deeply” and the verb which means “no way out” or “lost.” Thus it means someone who is utterly at a loss for what to do, or someone who has searched through all the possible ways and cannot find a way out. It is usually rendered something like “utterly perplexed.”
3
This word can express “a wish, a desire, a design or a purpose.”
THE CROWD WANTED TO KNOW WHAT TO DO - THEY WANTED THUMMIM
Here we observe the depth of the question that the crowd now has. They are witnessing an obvious miracle and wondering why God is doing what He is doing and what they should do about it. The question, “What should we do about it?” brings them to a point of completion, to the fulfillment of the purpose, to the Thummim. Please take note of the extreme intensity with which their amazement and perplexity are expressed by the Greek words employed in this verse – they were “thrown out of position” and “could find no way out whatsoever.”
People who were not yet convinced by the wind and the flames of fire that this was a move of the Holy Spirit, could not honestly deny what they were now hearing. It was an obvious miracle. Think of a man from Egypt who begins to hear the apostles speaking in his own language. He is amazed by it, but then he realizes that the man next to him, who is from Crete, is also rejoicing at being able to hear the message in his own tongue. The same is true for others around him from other places as well. It is an obvious move of God, therefore it gets their attention. A tongue that is genuine is always a supernatural move of God’s Spirit; it is obviously from God, not from man.