Acts 7:57

κράξαντες δέ, but they cried out … and, &c.

συνέσχον τὰ ὦτα, stopped their ears, thus shewing that they merited the description given in Acts 7:51. The verb signifies to compress, to hold tight together, and is often used in the LXX. of the shutting of heaven that there should be no rain. Cf. Deuteronomy 11:17; 1 Kings 8:35, &c. On the action thus described cf. T. B. Kethuboth 5 b, ‘Wherefore is the whole ear hard but the flap soft? That if any hear an unbecoming word he may press up the flap and shut his ear.’

καὶ ὥρμησαν ὁμοθυμαδόν, and rushed with one accord. As though he had been one convicted of idolatry, in which case (Deuteronomy 13:9-10) ‘the hand of all the people’ was to be upon the offender.