This aroused bitter indignation among the high priest and his followers who were of the sect of the Sadducees,

For I see that you are a bitter weed and a bundle of crookedness!"

Now Herod cherished a bitter grudge against the people of Tyre and Sidon. So in a united body they came to meet him, and after winning the favor of Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended for its food supply upon the king's country.

But those Jews who had not the faith, made the minds of the Gentiles bitter against the brothers.

And I often punished them [making them suffer] in all the synagogues and tried to force them to blaspheme; and in my extreme rage at them, I kept hunting them even to foreign cities [harassing and persecuting them].