²¹The men had not eaten for a long time. Paul stood up in front of them. “Men,” he said, “you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete. Then you would have avoided this harm and loss.

²²“Now I beg you to be brave. Not one of you will die. Only the ship will be destroyed. ²³I belong to God and serve him. Last night his angel stood beside me. ²⁴The angel said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must go on trial in front of Caesar. God has shown his grace by sparing the lives of all those sailing with you.’

²⁵“Men, continue to be brave. I have faith in God. It will happen just as he told me. ²⁶But we must run the ship onto the beach of some island.”

The Ship Is Destroyed

²⁷On the 14th night we were still being driven across the Sea of Adria. About midnight the sailors had a feeling that they were approaching land. ²⁸They measured how deep the water was. They found that it was 120 feet deep. A short time later they measured the water again. This time it was 90 feet deep. ²⁹They were afraid we would crash against the rocks. So they dropped four anchors from the back of the ship. They prayed that daylight would come.

³⁰The sailors wanted to escape from the ship. So they let the lifeboat down into the sea. They pretended they were going to lower some anchors from the front of the ship. ³¹But Paul spoke to the commander and the soldiers. “These men must stay with the ship,” he said. “If they don’t, you can’t be saved.” ³²So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat. They let it drift away.

³³Just before dawn Paul tried to get them all to eat. “For the last 14 days,” he said, “you have wondered what would happen. You have gone without food. You haven’t eaten anything. ³⁴Now I am asking you to eat some food. You need it to live. Not one of you will lose a single hair from your head.”

³⁵After Paul said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God. He did this where they all could see him. Then he broke it and began to eat. ³⁶All of them were filled with hope. So they ate some food. ³⁷There were 276 of us on board. ³⁸They ate as much as they wanted. They needed to make the ship lighter. So they threw the rest of the grain into the sea.

³⁹When daylight came, they saw a bay with a sandy beach. They didn’t recognize the place. But they decided to run the ship onto the beach if they could. ⁴⁰So they cut the anchors loose and left them in the sea. At the same time, they untied the ropes that held the rudders. They lifted the sail at the front of the ship to the wind. Then they headed for the beach. ⁴¹But the ship hit a sandbar. So the front of it got stuck and wouldn’t move. The back of the ship was broken to pieces by the pounding of the waves.

⁴²The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners. They wanted to keep them from swimming away and escaping. ⁴³But the commander wanted to save Paul’s life. So he kept the soldiers from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and swim to land. ⁴⁴The rest were supposed to get there on boards or other pieces of the ship. That is how everyone reached land safely.

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