Limitless Word
“In humiliation His justice was taken away; Who will describe His generation? For His life is taken away from the earth.”
Acts 8:33 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will declare His generation? For his life is taken from the earth.”
  • KJV In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
  • BSB In His humiliation He was deprived of justice. Who can recount His descendants? For His life was removed from the earth.”
  • NKJV In His humiliation His justice was taken away, And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.”
  • NLT He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

The quoted prophecy describes the Servant's unjust humiliation and the taking of his life, language fulfilled in Jesus' trial and death.

Overview

Continuing Isaiah 53, the text speaks of the Servant denied justice and cut off from the land of the living. These words found their fulfillment in Jesus, condemned unjustly yet through whom God's saving purpose was accomplished. The puzzling question of who can describe his generation invites the explanation Philip is about to give.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 15

  • Isa 53:12Therefore will I give him a portion with the great, and he will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
  • Isa 53:8He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
  • Phil 2:8–9And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.
  • Zech 13:7“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
  • Isa 53:10Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
  • Job 34:5For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, God has taken away my right:
  • Isa 5:23who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!
  • Job 27:2“As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter
  • Dan 9:26After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and its end shall be with a flood, and even to the end shall be war; desolations are determined.
  • Matt 27:12–26When he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.
  • Ps 22:30Posterity shall serve him. Future generations shall be told about the Lord.
  • Ps 22:15My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
  • Isa 10:2to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
  • Hab 1:4Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.
  • John 19:12–16At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you release this man, you aren’t Caesar’s friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Acts videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Acts 8:33YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ActsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.

How Acts 8:33 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.