Acts 21:27
And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,
The seven days almost ended were the end of purification ceremonies in the temple. Paul was there with four Christian Nazarites whose expenses he had paid, speaking with the priest about the sacrifices to be offered. He had entered the temple on a public feast occasion when strangers from everywhere crowded Jerusalem, which risked his life because he was well known from preaching the gospel to the Gentiles in many large cities. He passed in and out unnoticed for several days until he was recognized.
Those who recognized him were Jews from Asia who were angered by defeat in controversy with him in the synagogue at Ephesus and by his success in raising up a Christian church there, who were surprised to find him inside the temple precincts and were determined to make him suffer. They rushed on him and stirred the temple crowds and the whole city. They charged that he taught everywhere against the people and the law and the temple. They further charged that he had polluted the holy place by bringing Greeks inside, which was wholly false and was drawn from seeing him in the city with Trophimus the Ephesian, since as a Jew he had not violated the law by entering.
The enraged mob dragged him with blows from the sacred enclosure toward the court of the Gentiles to stone him to death. Levites closed the gates behind them to keep blood from polluting the holy place. The verse begins a chain of events that ends with Paul being taken by soldiers amid the crowd's violence. Afterward Paul asks to speak to the people and the request is granted, and he addresses them in Hebrew, whose familiar sound brings silence and attention.