Acts 23:12
And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.
More than forty Jews banded together in conspiracy and bound themselves by an oath to take neither food nor drink until Paul was dead. By that vow they gave a murderous plot the show of religious zeal. Their abstinence was a fast for strife and violence, of the kind condemned in Isaiah 58:4. The priests and rulers consented to the conspiracy instead of rebuking it.
The verse pictures Paul with enemies lying in wait to kill him, and the difficulties of Christian warfare are to be met as he met them. Trying places lie ahead where spies watch the track and lie in wait, where believers will be brought before councils and thrust into prison. Meeting them requires advanced faith that knows God and the power of His grace, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting and believing that God hears prayer.