Acts 19:28

Simplified Cowboy Version

Now, this really got 'em riled up. They all began chanting, "Artemis! Artemis! Artemis!"

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
When they had heard this, they were filled with rage and began to cry out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

King James Version (1611)
And when they heard these sayings, they were ful of wrath, & cried out, saying, Great is Diana of ye Ephesians.

King James Version
And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

English Standard Version
When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

New American Standard Bible
When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began shouting, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

New Century Version
When the others heard this, they became very angry and shouted, "Artemis, the goddess of Ephesus, is great!"

Amplified Bible
When they heard this, they were filled with rage, and they began shouting, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

New American Standard Bible (1995)
When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

Legacy Standard Bible
When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

Berean Standard Bible
When the men heard this, they were enraged and began shouting, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

Contemporary English Version
When the workers heard this, they got angry and started shouting, "Great is Artemis, the goddess of the Ephesians!"

Complete Jewish Bible
Hearing this, they were filled with rage and began bellowing, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

Darby Translation
And having heard [this], and being filled with rage, they cried out, saying, Great [is] Artemis of the Ephesians.

Easy-to-Read Version
When the men heard this, they became very angry. They shouted, "Great is Artemis, the goddess of Ephesus!"

Geneva Bible (1587)
Now when they heard it, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

George Lamsa Translation
And when they heard these things they were filled with wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Ar''te-mis of the E-phe''si-ans.

Good News Translation
As the crowd heard these words, they became furious and started shouting, "Great is Artemis of Ephesus!"

Lexham English Bible
And when they heard this and became full of rage, they began to shout, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

Literal Translation
And having heard, and having become full of anger, they cried out, saying, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!

American Standard Version
And when they heard this they were filled with wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

Bible in Basic English
And hearing this, they were very angry, crying out and saying, Great is Diana of Ephesus.

Hebrew Names Version
When they heard this they were filled with anger, and cried out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

International Standard Version
When they heard this, they became furious and began to shout, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

Etheridge Translation
And when they heard these (words) they were filled with wrath; and they cried, and said, Great is Artemis of the Ephesoyee.

Murdock Translation
And when they heard these things they were filled with wrath; and they cried out, and said: Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And when they hearde these sayinges, they were full of wrath, and cryed out, saying: great is Diana of ye Ephesians.

English Revised Version
And when they heard this, they were filled with wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

World English Bible
When they heard this they were filled with anger, and cried out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And hearing this, they were filled with rage, and cried out, saying, The great Diana of the Ephesians.

Weymouth's New Testament
After listening to this harangue, they became furiously angry and kept calling out, "Great is the Ephesian Diana!"

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whanne these thingis weren herd, thei weren fillid with ire, and crieden, and seiden, Greet is the Dian of Effesians.

Update Bible Version
And when they heard this they were filled with wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Artemis of the Ephesus.

Webster's Bible Translation
And when they heard [these sayings], they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great [is] Diana of the Ephesians.

New English Translation
When they heard this they became enraged and began to shout, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

New King James Version
Now when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!"

New Living Translation
At this their anger boiled, and they began shouting, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

New Life Bible
They became angry when they heard this and cried out, "Great is Diana of Ephesus."

New Revised Standard
When they heard this, they were enraged and shouted, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Now, hearing this, and becoming full of wrath, they began crying aloud, saying - Great, is Diana of the Ephesians!

Douay-Rheims Bible
Having heard these things, they were full of anger and cried out, saying: Great is Diana of the Ephesians!

Revised Standard Version
When they heard this they were enraged, and cried out, "Great is Ar'temis of the Ephesians!"

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
When they hearde these sayinges they were full of wrathe and cryed out saying: Greate is Diana of the Ephesians.

Young's Literal Translation
And they having heard, and having become full of wrath, were crying out, saying, `Great [is] the Artemis of the Ephesians!'

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Whan they herde this, they were full of wrath, cried out, and sayde: Greate is Diana of the Ephesians.

Mace New Testament (1729)
at these words, they were fir'd with indignation, and cry'd out, "great is Diana of the Ephesians."

THE MESSAGE
That set them off in a frenzy. They ran into the street yelling, "Great Artemis of the Ephesians! Great Artemis of the Ephesians!" They put the whole city in an uproar, stampeding into the stadium, and grabbing two of Paul's associates on the way, the Macedonians Gaius and Aristarchus. Paul wanted to go in, too, but the disciples wouldn't let him. Prominent religious leaders in the city who had become friendly to Paul concurred: "By no means go near that mob!"

Contextual Overview

²¹The Holy Spirit then told Paul to head off for Macedonia and Achaia on his way to Jerusalem. "That's where I'm headed," Paul said, "and then I'm off to Rome." ²²He told his two most trusted cowboys, Timothy and Erastus, to head to Macedonia and he'd join them shortly. ²³About this time, tempers began to flare about the cowboys who rode for the Way. ²⁴A blacksmith who made silver idols of the Greek goddess Artemis had hired a bunch of craftsmen and Paul's message had been bad for business. ²⁵The blacksmith got everyone together and said, "Y'all know this is how we make our living. You also know how profitable making these idols are. ²⁶You also know this cowboy named Paul has been taking customers away from us. And he ain't just doing it here in Ephesus, but the whole province of Asia. He convinces folks that man-made idols are worthless. ²⁷If we don't do something, our business is going to dry up and our great Artemis is going get a bad name. Folks will stop worshiping her and we will lose everything." ²⁸Now, this really got 'em riled up. They all began chanting, "Artemis! Artemis! Artemis!" ²⁹The chant spread throughout the city of Ephesus. The chant turned to violence as Paul's buddies from Macedonia, Gaius and Aristarchus, were grabbed and taken to the stadium. ³⁰Paul wanted to go and save them, but the cowboys with him kept him from rushing in there.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

they: Acts 7:54, Acts 16:19-24, Acts 21:28-31, Psalms 2:2, Revelation 12:12

and cried: Acts 19:34, Acts 19:35, 1 Samuel 5:3-5, 1 Kings 18:26-29, Isaiah 41:5-7, Jeremiah 50:38, Revelation 13:4, Revelation 17:13

Reciprocal: Psalms 2:1 - rage Psalms 83:2 - lo Acts 16:22 - the multitude Acts 19:24 - Diana Acts 23:10 - fearing Acts 26:17 - Delivering Ephesians 4:31 - clamour

Cross-References

2 Peter 2:7
Lot lived there, but was rescued because he didn't like what was going on around him and didn't conduct his business in the same way those heathens did.

Jude 1:7
Don't forget about Sodom and Gomorrah. Their people acted like those angels. They all indulged in sexual immorality and perversion. Those cities and their peoples were destroyed. Think of it like a warning shot from God for all of us not to ride those trails.

Revelation 9:2
The star unlocked the sinkhole and smoke billowed forth as if from the fire of a blacksmith's forge. The smoke blotted out what was left of the light of the sun and clogged most of the air over the entire earth.

Revelation 18:9
"The rulers of the earth who enjoyed her so much will grovel and weep when they see her burned to the ground.

Revelation 18:18
They will also cry out in anguish as the flames consume her. 'She was the greatest city ever!'

Revelation 19:3
Then again they shouted, "Praise God! The smoke from the fires of her destruction rise forever and ever!"

Revelation 21:8
But those who are lily-livered, double-crossers, perverts, killers, without morals, practicers of witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars will end up in the lake of fire. This will be their second death."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And when they heard these sayings,.... Both the masters and the workmen;

they were full of wrath; against Paul and his doctrine:

and cried out, saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians; this goddess is frequently called in Heathen writers, Diana of the Ephesians, or the Ephesian Diana, because of her famous temple at Ephesus; and to distinguish her from all other Dianas: Pausanias makes mention of sixty Dianas at least, and yet seems not to have taken notice of them all; all of them had different epithets, by which they were distinguished from one another; the images were in different shapes, and they were worshipped with different rites: what seems most of all to distinguish the Ephesian Diana from others, is her having many paps; hence she is called, "multi mammia"; so Minutius Felix observes t, that Diana is sometimes girt about on high as an huntress, and the Ephesian Diana is "mammis multis uberibus extructa" Just as the Isis of the Egyptians, which, Macrobius u says, signifies the earth; hence the whole body of the deity is covered with paps, because the whole universe is nourished by it: the priest of Diana of the Ephesians was an eunuch, and was obliged to abstain from all company; neither bathed, nor ate, nor drank with others, nor might he enter into the house of a private person; there was a feast kept every year in honour of her, at which young men in the flower of their age, and virgins well dressed, used to go to the temple in great pomp, keep the feast, and marry with each other. The temple was a sort of an asylum, as Heathen temples commonly were; and it had this particular privilege, that those that fled to it were freed from servitude w. This goddess is called "great", agreeably to her name, for, דינא, "Diana", signifies "great" and venerable; because of her birth, being the daughter of Jupiter; and because of her great service, she was supposed to be of in assisting at births; and because of her magnificent temple and worship; and because she was worshipped by great persons: and here greatness is ascribed unto her, and a loud cry made of it, to animate one another, to gather a mob together, and to incense them and stir them up against the apostle and his companion: in the Arabic version, instead of Diana, it is Venus, both here and elsewhere, but wrongly.

t In Octavia, p. 22. u Saturnal. l. 1. c. 20. w Pausauias in Arcadicis, sive, l. 8. p. 476. Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 20. & l. 6. c. 2. & c. 12.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Were full of wrath - Were greatly enraged - probably at the prospect of losing their gains.

Great is Diana ... - The term “great” was often applied by the Greeks to Diana. Thus, in Xenophon (Ephes. i.), he says, “I adjure you by your own goddess, the great (τὴν μεγάλην tēn megalēn) Diana of the Ephesians.” The design of this clamor was doubtless to produce a persecution against Paul, and thus to secure a continuance of their employment. Often, when people have no arguments, they raise a clamor; when their employments are in danger of being ruined, they are filled with rage. We may learn, also, that when people’s pecuniary interests are affected, they often show great zeal for religion, and expect by clamor in behalf of some doctrine to maintain their own interest, and to secure their own gains.