Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

³⁹ In the morning they saw land. But they did not know what country it was. They saw a sandy place. So they talked it over and thought they would try to get the boat on it.

⁴⁰ They cut off the anchors and left them in the water. At the same time, they untied the wood that guided the boat. They put up the big sail to catch the wind and tried to get the boat onto that sandy place.

⁴¹ But they came to a place where there was sand under the water. The boat stuck in it. The front end stuck so badly that they could not make it go. The back end began to break up because the water beat it so hard.

⁴² The soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners so that none of them would swim to land and run away.

⁴³ But the officer wanted to save Paul, so he stopped the soldiers. He told the people, `Those of you who can swim, jump into the water first and get to the land.

⁴⁴ Then the rest of you jump in and go on planks and other pieces of the boat.' So in this way they all got to the land safely.