Acts 12:6

Acts 12:6. The same night. That is, the night before the day fixed for the execution. Peter was not missed by the guards till sunrise about six o'clock (see Acts 12:18). It was, then, in the fourth watch, some time between three and six o'clock, that the angel - presence entered the prison chamber. Peter was chained to two soldiers, while the other two as sentinels kept a useless watch at the prison-room door.

Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. It was the usual Roman custom to chain a prisoner only to one soldier. Meyer supposes that in the case of Peter the additional severity of the double chain was adopted as an extra precaution to secure an important prisoner lying under sentence of death.