The Nazirite Vow

6 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of ^(A)a Nazirite,^{[a] (B)}to separate himself to the Lord, ³ he ^(C)shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. ⁴ All the days of his separation^[b] he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.

⁵ “All the days of his vow of separation, no ^(D)razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. ^(E)He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long.

⁶ “All the days that he separates himself to the Lord ^(F)he shall not go near a dead body. ^7 (G)Not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean, because his separation to God is on his head. ⁸ All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.

⁹ “And if any man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head, then ^(H)he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. ^10 (I)On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two pigeons to the priest to the entrance of the tent of meeting, ¹¹ and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day ¹² and separate himself to the Lord for the days of his separation and bring a male lamb a year old ^(J)for a guilt offering. But the previous period shall be void, because his separation was defiled.

¹³ “And this is the law for the Nazirite, ^(K)when the time of his separation has been completed: he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, ¹⁴ and he shall bring his gift to the Lord, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish ^(L)as a sin offering, and one ram without blemish ^(M)as a peace offering, ¹⁵ and a basket of unleavened bread, ^(N)loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their ^(O)grain offering and their ^(P)drink offerings. ¹⁶ And the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer ^(Q)his sin offering and his burnt offering, ¹⁷ and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also its grain offering and its drink offering. ¹⁸ And the Nazirite ^(R)shall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the tent of meeting and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. ¹⁹ And the priest shall take the ^(S)shoulder of the ram, when it is boiled, and one unleavened loaf out of the basket and one unleavened wafer, and ^(T)shall put them on the hands of the Nazirite, after he has shaved the hair of his consecration, ²⁰ and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. ^(U)They are a holy portion for the priest, together with the breast that is waved and the thigh that is contributed. And after that the Nazirite may drink wine.

²¹ “This is the law of the Nazirite. But if he vows an offering to the Lord above his Nazirite vow, as he can afford, in exact accordance with the vow that he takes, then he shall do in addition to the law of the Nazirite.”

Aaron's Blessing

²² The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²³ “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus ^(V)you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

^27 (AA)“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Paul Sails for Rome

27 And when it was decided ^(A)that ^(B)we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan ^(C)Cohort named Julius. ² And embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by ^(D)Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. ³ The next day we put in at Sidon. And ^(E)Julius ^(F)treated Paul kindly and ^(G)gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for. ⁴ And putting out to sea from there we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. ⁵ And when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia. ⁶ There the centurion found ^(H)a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board. ⁷ We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus, and as the wind did not allow us to go farther, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone. ⁸ Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea.

⁹ Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even ^(I)the Fast^[a] was already over, Paul advised them, ¹⁰ saying, “Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with ^(J)injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” ¹¹ But the centurion paid more attention to ^(K)the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said. ¹² And because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there.

The Storm at Sea

¹³ Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore. ¹⁴ But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, ^(L)struck down from the land. ¹⁵ And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. ¹⁶ Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda,^[b] we managed with difficulty to secure the ship's boat. ¹⁷ After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship. Then, fearing that they would ^(M)run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear,^[c] and thus they were driven along. ¹⁸ Since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day ^(N)to jettison the cargo. ¹⁹ And on the third day they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. ²⁰ When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.

²¹ Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, ^(O)you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this ^(P)injury and loss. ²² Yet now I urge you to ^(Q)take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. ²³ For this very night ^(R)there ^(S)stood before me ^(T)an angel of the God ^(U)to whom I belong and ^(V)whom I worship, ²⁴ and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; ^(W)you must stand before Caesar. And behold, ^(X)God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ ²⁵ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. ²⁶ But ^(Y)we must ^(Z)run aground on some island.”

²⁷ When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. ²⁸ So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms.^[d] A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms.^{[e] 29} And fearing that we might ^(AA)run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. ³⁰ And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered ^(AB)the ship's boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, ³¹ Paul 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 ship's boat and let it go.

³³ As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. ³⁴ Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength,^[f] for ^(AC)not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” ³⁵ And when he had said these things, he took bread, and ^(AD)giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. ³⁶ Then they all ^(AE)were encouraged and ate some food themselves. ³⁷ (We were in all 276^{[g] (AF)}persons in the ship.) ³⁸ And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, ^(AG)throwing out the wheat into the sea.

The Shipwreck

³⁹ Now when it was day, ^(AH)they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, on which they planned if possible to run the ship ashore. ⁴⁰ So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders. Then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for the beach. ⁴¹ But striking a reef,^{[h] (AI)}they ran the vessel aground. The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf. ^42 (AJ)The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape. ⁴³ But the centurion, ^(AK)wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, ⁴⁴ and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that ^(AL)all were brought safely to land.