And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

And behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high.

And I send the promise of my Father upon you: but stay you in the city till you be endued with power from on high.

And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high.

And, lo, I do send the promise of my Father upon you, but ye, abide ye in the city of Jerusalem till ye be clothed with power from on high.'

And remember that I am about to send out my Father's promised gift to rest upon you. But, as for you, wait patiently in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

And now I will send to you what my father has undertaken to give you, but do not go from the town, till the power from heaven comes to you.

And I am sending the Promise of my Father upon you. But you must stay in the city, until such time as you are clothed with power from on high."

And now I am myself about to send you that which my Father has promised. But you must remain in the city until you have been invested with power from above."

And, lo, I send. That the apostles may not be terrified by their weakness, he invites them to expect new and extraordinary grace; as if he had said, though you feel yourselves to be unfit for such a charge, there is no reason why you should despond, because I will send you from heaven that power which I know that you do not possess. The more fully to confirm them in this confidence, he mentions that the Father had promised to them the Holy Spirit; for, in order that they might prepare themselves with greater alacrity for the work, God had already encouraged them by his promise, as a remedy for their distrust. Christ now puts himself in the place of the Father, and undertakes to perform the promise; in which he again claims for himself divine power. To invest feeble men with heavenly power, is a part of that glory which God swears that he will not give to another: and, therefore, if it belongs to Christ, it follows that he is that God who formerly spoke by the mouth of the prophet, (Isaiah 42:8.) And though God promised special grace to the apostles, and Christ bestowed it on them, we ought to hold universally that no mortal is of himself qualified for preaching the gospel, except so far as God clothes him with his Spirit, to supply his nakedness and poverty. And certainly, as it is not in reference to the apostles alone that Paul exclaims, (2-Corinthians 2:16,) And who shall be found sufficient for these things? so all whom God raises up to be ministers of the gospel must be endued with the heavenly Spirit; and, therefore, in every part of Scripture he is promised to all the teachers of the Church without exception. But remain you in the city of Jerusalem. That they may not advance to teach before the proper time, Christ enjoins on them silence and repose, until, sending them out according to his pleasure, he may make a seasonable use of their labors. And this was a useful trial of their obedience, that, after having been endued with the understanding of the Scripture, and after having had the grace of the Spirit breathed on them, (John 20:22;) yet because the Lord had forbidden them to speak, they were silent as if they had been dumb. For we know that those who expect to gain applause and admiration from their hearers are very desirous to appear in public. Perhaps, too, by this delay, Christ intended to punish them for indolence, because they did not, in compliance with his injunction, set out immediately, on the same day, for Galilee. However that may be, we are taught by their example, that we ought to attempt nothing but as the Lord calls us to it; and, therefore, though they may possess some ability to teach in public, let men remain in silence and retirement, until the Lord lead them by the hand into the public assembly. When they are commanded to remain at Jerusalem, we must understand this to mean, after they had returned from Galilee. For, as we shortly afterwards learn from Matthew, though he gave them an opportunity of seeing him at Jerusalem, still he did not change his original intention to go to Galilee, (Matthew 26:32, and 28:10.) The meaning of the word, therefore, is, that after having given them injunctions at the appointed place, he wishes them to remain silent for a time, until he supplies them with new rigor.

The promise of my Father - The promise which the Father had made to them "through" the Saviour. See Matthew 10:19; John 14:16-17, John 14:26. The promise was, that they should be aided by the power of the Holy Spirit. He also doubtless referred to the promise of God, made in the days of Joel, respecting the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. See Joel 2:28-29, compared with Acts 2:16-21.
Endued with power from on high - The power which would be given them by the descent of the Holy Spirit - the power of speaking with tongues, of working miracles, and of preaching the gospel with the attending blessing and aid of the Holy Spirit. This was accomplished in the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. See Acts 2.

The promise of my Father - That is, the Holy Ghost, promised, John 15:26. See Acts 1:4; Acts 2:33.
Until ye be endued with power - The energy of the Holy Ghost was to be communicated to them for three particular purposes.
1. That he might be in them, a sanctifying comforter, fortifying their souls and bringing to their remembrance whatever Jesus had before spoken to them.
2. That their preaching might be accompanied by his demonstration and power to the hearts of their hearers, so that they might believe and be saved.
3. That they might be able to work miracles to confirm their pretensions to a Divine mission, and to establish the truth of the doctrines they preached.

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, (i) until ye be endued with power from on high.
(i) Until the Holy Spirit comes down from heaven upon you.

And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you,.... By which is meant the promise of the Spirit, called the promise of the Father, because he was promised by the Father to be sent, and poured on the saints in the times of the Messiah, Isaiah 44:3 and because Christ promised to pray the Father for him, and to send him from him; and that the Father should send him in his name, who would fit and qualify them for, and assist them in bearing a testimony for him; since he would teach them all things, lead them into all truth, take of the things of Christ, and show them to them, and bring to their remembrance all things they had seen and heard: and this promise of the Father was to be sent in a very short time, in ten days time, as accordingly it was; and might be very properly said to be sent "upon" them, since, when he was sent down, he sat upon them in the appearance of fire; and this being a marvellous thing, as well as of great moment and importance, it is introduced with a "behold", as a note both of admiration and attention.
But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem; for the space of ten days; here they were to continue during that time, and not depart thence; yea, they were to sit there, as the word used signifies: they were to sit still, and be silent; they were not to begin to preach; they were only to attend to prayer and Christian conversation, and to wait for the Spirit, the promise of the Father; and who also is designed in the following clause:
until ye be endued with power from on high; the Spirit of God is a spirit of might, and of power, as well as of knowledge, of understanding, of counsel, of love, and of a sound mind; whereby they were to be fortified, and inspired with courage and greatness of soul, so as to look their greatest adversaries in the face with boldness and intrepidity, and freely, and without fear, speak unto them; and whereby their ministrations would be succeeded to the conversion of many souls; and accordingly so it was: for after the Spirit was poured out upon them, they who before were timorous and fearful, came forth publicly, with undaunted courage, and resolution, and boldness, to the amazement of their adversaries; and their preaching was with the demonstration of the Spirit, and of power; who may be said to be "from on high", since he descended from heaven upon them; and they may be said to be "endued", or "clothed" with him, since there was such an extra ordinary and plentiful effusion of his gifts and graces on them: and now they were to wait in Jerusalem for this, that in the place where the Spirit had been dishonoured and blasphemed, and the unpardonable sin against him had been committed by the Scribes and Pharisees, the might be in a most visible and signal manner honoured; and also, because the doctrine of the Lord was to go out of Zion, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem. The Vulgate Latin version leaves out the word "Jerusalem", and reads only, "sit ye in the city until", &c. but then no other city can be designed.

I send--the present tense, to intimate its nearness.
promise of my Father--that is, what My Father hath promised; the Holy Ghost, of which Christ is the authoritative Dispenser (John 14:7; Revelation 3:1; Revelation 5:6).
endued--invested, or clothed with; implying, as the parallels show (Romans 13:14; 1-Corinthians 15:53; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 3:9-10), their being so penetrated and acted upon by conscious supernatural power (in the full sense of that word) as to stamp with divine authority the whole exercise of their apostolic office, including, of course, their pen as well as their mouth.

Behold I send the promise - Emphatically so called; the Holy Ghost.