New Testament in a Year

The Shipwreck

²⁷ It was the fourteenth night, and we were drifting through the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors suspected that land was near. ²⁸ After taking soundings, they found the depth to be twenty fathoms. A little later, they took soundings again and found it was fifteen fathoms. ²⁹ Fearing that we might run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and began praying for daylight to come. ³⁰ Meanwhile, the sailors had begun trying to escape from the ship. They lowered the lifeboat into the sea and pretended that they were going to lay out the anchors from the bow. ³¹ Paul told the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men remain onboard, you cannot be saved.” ³² Then the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and set it adrift.

³³ Right up to daybreak Paul kept urging all of them to eat something. He said, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, not eating anything. ³⁴ So I urge you to eat something, for it will help you survive, since none of you will lose so much as^[a] a hair from his head.” ³⁵ After he 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^[b] of us on the ship. ³⁸ After they had eaten all they wanted, they began to lighten the ship by dumping its cargo of^[c] wheat into the sea.

³⁹ When day came, they didn’t recognize the land, but they could see a bay with a beach on which they planned to run the ship ashore, if possible. ⁴⁰ So they cut the anchors free and left them in the sea. At the same time they untied the ropes that held the steering oars, raised the foresail to the wind, and headed for the beach. ⁴¹ But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow stuck and couldn’t be moved, while the stern was broken to pieces by the force of the waves. ⁴² The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners to keep them from swimming ashore and escaping, ⁴³ but the centurion wanted to save Paul, so he prevented them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. ⁴⁴ The rest were to follow, some on planks and others on various pieces of the ship. In this way everyone got to shore safely.