Mark 13:9

Take heed to yourselves Walk circumspectly, and arm yourselves both with patience and fortitude, that you may be able to perform your duty amid all the opposition and persecution which you shall meet with. For they shall deliver you up to councils, &c. See note on Matthew 10:17; Matthew 24:9. And in the synagogues ye shall be beaten “It is certain,” says Whitby, “both from Scripture and the Jewish writers, that whipping and beating were punishments used in the synagogues of the Jews. Thus Paul says, he punished the Christians oft in every synagogue, Acts 26:11; and that he did beat in the synagogue those that believed, Acts 22:19: and that it was usual to whip both their wise men and their disciples, when they had acted perversely, in their synagogues, is fully proved by Campegius Vitringa de Synag. Ver.” And ye shall be brought before rulers and kings Thus Peter and John were called before the sanhedrim; James and Peter before Herod; and Paul before Nero the emperor, as well as before the Roman governors, Gallio, Felix, and Festus; and some were beaten, as Peter and John, (Acts 5:40,) Paul and Silas. For a testimony against them The persecutions which you shall suffer shall become a glorious proof, both of your innocence, and of their guilt in rejecting the gospel. See note on Matthew 10:18.