Acts 27

¹ When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, they handed Paul and some other prisoners over to a centurion named Julius, of the Augustan Cohort.

² We boarded an Adramyttian ship that was about to sail to ports along the coast of Asia, and set out. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.

³ The next day we reached Sidon. Julius treated Paul kindly and allowed him to visit his friends so they could care for him.

⁴ Leaving there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us.

⁵ We crossed the sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia and reached Myra in Lycia.

⁶ There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us aboard it.

⁷ We sailed slowly for many days and reached a point opposite Cnidus with difficulty. Since the wind would not let us continue, we sailed under the lee of Crete, off Salmone.

⁸ We made our way along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea.

⁹ A great deal of time had passed, and sailing had become dangerous because even the Fast had already passed. So Paul warned them.

¹⁰ He said to them, “Men, I see that this voyage is going to bring damage and great loss, not only to the cargo and the ship, but also to our lives.”

¹¹ But the centurion trusted the pilot and the owner of the ship more than Paul’s words.

¹² Since the harbor was not suitable for spending the winter, most of them decided to leave there, hoping to reach Phoenix and spend the winter there. It was a harbor in Crete, facing southwest and northwest.

¹³ When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had achieved their purpose. They weighed anchor and sailed close along the coast of Crete.

¹⁴ But not long afterward, a violent wind called the Northeaster swept down on the island.

¹⁵ The ship was caught and could not face the wind, so we gave way and were driven along.

¹⁶ As we passed under the lee of a small island called Clauda, we managed with difficulty to get control of the lifeboat.

¹⁷ After hoisting it aboard, they used cables to brace the ship, passing them underneath it. Fearing they might run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear and were driven along like that.

¹⁸ As the storm battered us violently, the next day they began throwing the cargo overboard.

¹⁹ On the third day, they threw the ship’s equipment overboard with their own hands.

²⁰ For many days neither sun nor stars appeared, and a severe storm kept beating down on us. At last, all hope of being saved was fading away.

²¹ After a long time without food, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not sailed from Crete. Then you would have avoided this damage and loss.

²² But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because none of you will lose your life; only the ship will be lost.

²³ For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship stood beside me.

²⁴ He said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And look, God has granted you the lives of everyone sailing with you.’

²⁵ So take courage, men, because I believe God that it will happen just as I was told.

²⁶ But we must run aground on some island.”

²⁷ When the fourteenth night came, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, the sailors began to suspect around midnight that they were approaching land.

²⁸ They took soundings and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on, they took soundings again and found fifteen fathoms.

²⁹ Fearing we might be driven onto rocky ground, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.

³⁰ The sailors, however, were trying to escape from the ship. They lowered the lifeboat into the sea, pretending they were going to put out anchors from the bow.

³¹ Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay on the ship, you cannot be saved.”

³² So the soldiers cut the ropes of the lifeboat and let it drift away.

³³ As daylight was about to come, Paul urged everyone to eat, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have been waiting without food, taking nothing.

³⁴ So I urge you to eat, because this will help keep you safe. Not one hair from any of your heads will be lost.”

³⁵ After saying this, he took bread, gave thanks to God in front of everyone, broke it, and began to eat.

³⁶ Everyone was encouraged and ate some food too.

³⁷ There were 276 of us in all aboard the ship.

³⁸ After they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea.

³⁹ When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a beach and decided to run the ship aground there, if they could.

⁴⁰ They cast off the anchors and left them in the sea. At the same time they loosened the ropes holding the rudders, hoisted the foresail to the wind, and headed for the beach.

⁴¹ But they struck a place between two seas and ran the ship aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, while the stern began to break apart under the force of the waves.

⁴² The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners so that none of them could swim away and escape.

⁴³ But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, stopped them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for land.

⁴⁴ The rest were to follow, some on planks and others on pieces of the ship. And so it happened that everyone reached land safely.

Read and listen to this chapter in the Shalem app, free: narration, chapter video and reading progress. Get the app