Once Saul knew who was speaking, he no longer argued; he asked for orders. He was "trembling and astonished." Barnes says he was alarmed at what he saw and heard, "and at the consciousness of his own evil course," and that the question "indicates a subdued soul, a humbled spirit." Matthew Henry says Saul "submitted without reserve, desirous to know what the Lord Jesus would have him to do." Barnes adds that "the first act of the Christian is to surrender his own will to that of God." The man who had come with his own plans for Damascus now asked Jesus for His.

Jesus answered, "Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do" (Acts 9:6). Saul obeyed. He rose blind and was led by the hand into Damascus, where he waited three days without food or drink (Acts 9:8-9). Then the Lord sent a disciple named Ananias, who laid hands on him; Saul received his sight "and arose, and was baptized" (Acts 9:17-18). In Paul's own retelling, Ananias also said, "And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized" (Acts 22:16).

The Textus Receptus behind the KJV includes the words "trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him" in this verse. Many other Greek texts, such as the Nestle 1904 text, do not have them here, so the ESV begins simply, "But rise and enter the city." The same question does appear in every text when Paul tells his story in Jerusalem: "What shall I do, LORD?" (Acts 22:10).

Gill notes that some of the wording of this verse "is wanting in the Alexandrian copy, and Syriac version," referring to an ancient Greek manuscript and an early translation into Syriac.

Jesus did not hand Saul the whole map. He gave him one step: go into the city and wait. Barnes observes, "even in the most striking and remarkable cases of conversion, there is not at once a clear view of duty." The rest came through an ordinary disciple, Ananias, whom the Lord sent with the news that Saul was "a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles" (Acts 9:15). The Lord also told Ananias, "I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake" (Acts 9:16).

The question Saul asked is the right question for anyone who meets Jesus. Barnes links it to the Philippian jailer's cry, "what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). Paul later wrote that when God revealed His Son in him, "immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood" (Galatians 1:16).