10:9 On the morrow, as they... drew nigh to the city. Starting in the evening, after three o'clock, they could be near Joppa, thirty miles distant, the next day, at the sixth hour, or about twelve o'clock.
Went up upon the house top to pray. To the flat roof of the house, surrounded by the usual balustrade about four feet high, a place of retirement, and often the sleeping place of the family in the warm season. Moses required balustrades to the roofs (De 22:8). See also 1Sa 9:25.
10:9-18 The prejudices of Peter against the Gentiles, would have prevented his going to Cornelius, unless the Lord had prepared him for this service. To tell a Jew that God had directed those animals to be reckoned clean which were hitherto deemed unclean, was in effect saying, that the law of Moses was done away. Peter was soon made to know the meaning of it. God knows what services are before us, and how to prepare us; and we know the meaning of what he has taught us, when we find what occasion we have to make use of it.
