New Testament in a Year

The Shipwreck

²⁷ On the fourteenth night we were still drifting through the Mediterranean Sea. About midnight the sailors suspected that we were approaching land. ²⁸ So they threw a line with a weight on it into the water. It sank 120 feet. They waited a little while and did the same thing again. This time the line sank 90 feet. ²⁹ Fearing we might hit rocks, they dropped four anchors from the back of the ship and prayed for morning to come.

³⁰ The sailors tried to escape from the ship. They let the lifeboat down into the sea and pretended they were going to lay out the anchors from the front of the ship. ³¹ Paul told the officer and the soldiers, “If these sailors don’t stay on the ship, you have no hope of staying alive.” ³² Then the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.

³³ Just before daybreak Paul was encouraging everyone to have something to eat. “This is the fourteenth day you have waited and have had nothing to eat. ³⁴ So I’m encouraging you to eat something. Eating will help you survive, since not a hair from anyone’s head will be lost.” ³⁵ After Paul said this, he took some bread, thanked God in front of everyone, broke it, and began to eat. ³⁶ Everyone was encouraged and had something to eat. ³⁷ (There were 276 of us on the ship.) ³⁸ After the people had eaten all they wanted, they lightened the ship by dumping the wheat into the sea.

³⁹ In the morning they couldn’t recognize the land, but they could see a bay with a beach. So they decided to try to run the ship ashore. ⁴⁰ They cut the anchors free and left them in the sea. At the same time they untied the ropes that held the steering oars. Then they raised the top sail to catch the wind and steered the ship to the shore. ⁴¹ They struck a sandbar in the water and ran the ship aground. The front of the ship stuck and couldn’t be moved, while the back of the ship was broken to pieces by the force of the waves.

⁴² The soldiers had a plan to kill the prisoners to keep them from swimming away and escaping. ⁴³ However, the officer wanted to save Paul, so he stopped the soldiers from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and swim ashore. ⁴⁴ Then he ordered the rest to follow on planks or some other pieces ⌞of wood⌟ from the ship. In this way everyone got to shore safely.