Ma'ashym (Acts) — 27
Shaul Sails for Rome
1 When the time came, we set sail for Italy. Shaul and several other prisoners were placed in the custody of a Roman officer named Julius, a captain of the Imperial Regiment.
2 Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was also with us. We left on a ship whose home port was Adramyttium on the northwest coast of the province of Asia; it was scheduled to make several stops at ports along the coast of the province.
3 The next day when we docked at Sidun, Julius was very kind to Shaul and let him go ashore to visit with friends so they could provide for his needs.
4 Putting out to sea from there, we encountered strong headwinds that made it difficult to keep the ship on course, so we sailed north of Cyprus between the island and the mainland.
5 Keeping to the open sea, we passed along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, landing at Myra, in the province of Lycia.
6 There the commanding officer found a Mitzraym ship from Alexandria that was bound for Italy, and he put us on board.
7 We had several days of slow sailing, and after great difficulty we finally neared Cnidus. But the wind was against us, so we sailed across to Crete and along the sheltered coast of the island, past the cape of Salmone.
8 We struggled along the coast with great difficulty and finally arrived at a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.
9 We had lost a lot of time. The weather was becoming dangerous for sea travel because it was so late in the fall, and Shaul spoke to the ship’s officers about it.
10 “Men,” Shaul said, “I perceived there is trouble ahead if we go on the ship will wreck, loss of cargo, and danger to our lives as well.”
11 But the officer in charge of the prisoners listened more to the ship’s captain and the owner than to Shaul.
12 And since Fair Havens was an exposed harbor, a poor place to spend the winter, most of the crew wanted to go on to Phoenix, farther up the coast of Crete, and spend the winter there. Phoenix was a good harbor with only a southwest and northwest exposure.
The Storm at Sea
13 When a light wind began blowing from the south, the sailors thought they could make it. So they pulled up anchor and sailed close to the shore of Crete.
14 But the weather changed abruptly, and a wind of typhoon strength (called a “northeaster”) burst across the island and blew us out to sea.
15 The sailors could not turn the ship into the wind, so they gave up and let it run before the gale.
16 And running under the shelter of an island called Clauda, we secured the skiff with difficulty.
17 When they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship; and fearing lest they should run aground on the Syrtis Sands, they struck sail and were driven.
18 And because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship.
19 On the third day we threw the ship’s tackle overboard with our own hands.
20 Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up.
21 No one had eaten for a long time. Finally, Shaul called the crew together and said, “Men, you should have listened to me in the first place and not left Crete. You would have avoided all this damage and loss.
22 But take courage! None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down.
23 For last night a Malak of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me,
24 And the Malak said, ‘Do not be afraid, Shaul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What is more, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH in His goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.’
25 So take courage! For I believe 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH. It will be just as HE said.
26 But we will be shipwrecked on an island.”
27 About midnight on the fourteenth night of the storm, as we were being driven across the Sea of Adria, the sailors sensed land was near.
28 And they took soundings and found it to be twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a little farther, they took soundings again and found it to be fifteen fathoms.
29 Then, fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern, and prayed for day to come.
30 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow,
31 Shaul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”
32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off.
33 And as day was about to dawn, Shaul implored them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing.
34 “Please eat something now for your own good. For not a hair of your heads will perish.”
35 Then Shaul took some bread, and gave Tudah to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH before them all, and broke off a piece and ate it.
36 Then everyone was encouraged and began to eat
37 And in all we were two hundred and seventy-six persons on the ship.
38 So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea.
39 When morning dawned, they did not recognize the coastline, but they saw a bay with a beach and wondered if they could get to shore by running the ship aground.
40 So they cut off the anchors and left them in the sea. Then they lowered the rudders, raised the foresail, and headed toward shore.
41 But striking a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves.
42 And the soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape.
43 But the centurion, wanting to save Shaul, and he kept the soldiers from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land,
44 And the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land.