Verse 22 is an amplification of verse 21b, namely, the statement by … his holy prophets. In this instance there is no causal relation as might be suggested by the word for. Rather, it may be necessary to indicate that the contents of verse 22 simply represent a specific instance of what has already been said. This can be effectively indicated by English “for,” but a conjunction of cause would not do this in certain other languages. A closer equivalent in such languages would be “for example, it was Moses who said.”

In some languages the so-called possessive your related to the phrase the Lord your God must be shifted from God to Lord, that is to say, “God your Lord.” This is because people are regarded as related to Lord but they certainly are not thought of as in any possessive relationship to God. Even with Lord the possessive pronoun represents a semantic goal, for the Lord is “the one who commands the people.”

“Like me” (Good News Translation just as he sent me) may in this present passage be taken to refer either to the fact that God will send a prophet in the same way that he sent Moses, or to the fact that the one whom he sends will be a prophet just like Moses was a prophet. The Good News Translation follows the first of these possibilities and gives the second as an alternative rendering.

The last clause of verse 22a who will be of your own people must in some languages be a separate sentence, since it should be attributive to prophet and not to the intervening phrase just as he sent me.

The phrase of your own people should refer to the “nation” and not merely to some family or clan. This means that the final clause of verse 22a might read “he will be one of your nation” or “he will be one of you,” though in this instance the pronoun “you” must refer to the totality of the people and not to the specific group gathered to hear Peter.

You must listen to involves more than merely hearing. The implication is “you must obey” or “pay attention to all that he tells you,” implying conformance in behavior.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .