The voice which said to him is obviously God. In languages in which one cannot speak of “a voice saying anything” one can introduce the obvious agent of the speaking, “God said to him.”

The verb translated kill originally meant “to kill as a sacrifice,” but commentators and translators agree that in the present context it has lost its specialized meaning and simply means kill, not “offer as a sacrifice.” In a number of languages some grammatical goal of kill and eat must be introduced for example, “kill and eat these animals” or “kill and eat these living things.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .