Acts 19:38

Wherefore if … have a matter against any man i.e. have any charge which they wish to bring. For the concerns in which they are interested will be such as the legal tribunals can attend to.

the law is open This gives the general sense. The words are in the plural number and mean either "court- daysare appointed," i.e. there are proper times fixed when such causes can be heard; or perhaps better, because of the verb which seems to imply that the opportunity of legal action is even now open, "court- meetingsare now going on." This the Rev. Ver.appears to have adopted by rendering "the courts are open."

and there are deputies The word is the same which in Acts 13:7-8; Acts 13:12 should be rendered "proconsul," and that word is rightly given here by the Rev. Ver., for Asia was a proconsular province (see on this matter Conybeare and Howson, ii. 78). The difficulty in the present verse has arisen from the use of the plural number, for there was only one proconsul over a province at the same time, and there could only be one in Ephesus when the townclerk was speaking. But if we consider that he is speaking merely of the provision made by the institutions of the empire for obtaining justice in a case of wrong, we can see that his words need not occasion much trouble. "Proconsuls are (he says) an imperial institution. In every province like ours there exists such a supreme magistrate, and so there is no fear about obtaining redress for real injuries." Another explanation (due to Basnage, and alluded to in the notes of Conybeare and Howson, u. s.) is that after the poisoning of Silanus the proconsul, (as related Tac. An. xiii. 1) Celer and Ælius, who governed the province of Asia as procurators, might be intended by this plural title. Others have thought that there might be present in Ephesus some other proconsul from a neighbouring province, as Cilicia, Cyprus, Bithynia or elsewhere; but what was first said seems the easier explanation.

let them implead one another Impleadis somewhat antiquated now, and the Rev. Ver.substitutes accuse. Of course the accusations would be only from the one side, which the other would be called on to answer.