KICK

(laktizo): In the famous vision on the road to Damascus the unseen voice said to Saul: "Why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad" (Acts 9:4 f; Acts 26:14). The words are omitted from the best manuscripts in Acts 9:4. This was a familiar proverb in both Greek and Latin literature, and refers to the severer goading received by an ox which kicks back at the goad used to guide or urge him on. The words seem to mean that Paul's paroxysm of persecution was a painful as well as profitless resistance to the pricks of conscience by which God was leading him into the light.

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.