Acts 22:22
And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live. And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live.
The crowd in Jerusalem gave Paul a hearing up to the point where he declared that Christ had told him to depart because He would send him far away to the Gentiles, and at that word their fury broke out. Their shout to take such a fellow away from the earth as unfit to live was a demand that he be put to death. As they shouted they cried out, cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air. That flinging off of garments and throwing of dust repeated what had been done at Stephen's martyrdom.
Their rage came from national pride and the bigoted belief that God's favor with its privileges and the light of truth belonged to their own people alone and were not to be shared with Gentiles. Their outcry was the inspiration of Satan, not of God. Their reaction shows that believing a falsehood does not make men kind, tender, and compassionate.
Their hostility put Paul's life in danger, illustrating a pattern in which Jewish authorities condemned him without proving his guilt while heathen magistrates repeatedly recognized his innocence and protected him.