The man's first question denied Moses' authority. His second question went further and used Moses' secret against him. The day before, Moses had struck down an Egyptian who was mistreating an Israelite (Acts 7:24), and in Exodus he had hidden the body "in the sand" (Exodus 2:12). Gill paraphrases the man's words: "is it thy will? dost thou design to kill me?" The question turned Moses from peacemaker into accused. Barnes says how the killing became known "does not appear," though it "was probably communicated by the man who was rescued from the hands of the Egyptian."

Moses gave no answer. "Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons" (Acts 7:29). Exodus adds that "Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known," and that Pharaoh "sought to slay Moses" (Exodus 2:14-15). Forty years later the Lord spoke to him from the bush and sent him back to Egypt (Acts 7:30-34).

Exodus 2:14 has the man ask, "intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian?" Stephen's wording adds "yesterday," which fits Exodus 2:13, where the quarrel happened "the second day."

Madian is the Greek form of Midian (Exodus 2:15). Barnes explains that "a stranger" means a sojourner, "one who had a temporary abode in the land." Exodus records that Moses named his son Gershom, saying, "I have been a stranger in a strange land" (Exodus 2:22).

This question drove Moses out of Egypt, but it did not drive him out of God's plan. Stephen moves straight from Moses' flight to God's appearing: "when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush" (Acts 7:30). There God said, "I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people... and am come down to deliver them" (Acts 7:34).

The man who accused Moses did not understand that God meant to deliver His people through Moses (Acts 7:25). Forty years passed, but God's purpose held.