While the day was coming on Before they had light sufficient to discern what they should do; Paul besought them all to take meat To take some refreshment; saying, This is the fourteenth day that ye continue fasting Not as if they had absolutely eaten nothing all that while; for it is generally allowed that none can fast half so long without danger of death; having taken nothing No regular meal; through a deep sense of your extreme danger: the necessary consequence of which is, that you must be very faint and weak, and unfit for those exertions and fatigues which may farther lie before you; for it will be a narrow escape that we are to expect, and we may find great difficulties in getting on shore. If a sense of the great danger they were in took away all their desire for food, let us not wonder if men who have a deep sense of the danger they are in of everlasting death should, for a time, forget either to take food, or to attend to their worldly affairs. Much less let us censure that as madness which may be the beginning of true wisdom. Wherefore Since till the morning rises we can attempt nothing by way of approach to land; I pray Παρακαλω, I exhort; you to take τροφης, nourishment, for this is Προς της υμετερας σωτηριας, for your preservation, that ye may be the better able to swim to shore; for there shall not a hair, &c. A proverbial expression, assuring them of entire safety. And when he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks For that provision which God now gave them in their necessities, and for the assurance of life with which he had favoured them by so particular a revelation; and when he had broken it, he began to eat Thus setting them an example. Then were they all of good cheer Encouraged by his example as well as words; and they also took some meat As he had done. And when they had eaten enough As much as was sufficient for their present refreshment and support; they lightened the ship Still more than they had done; and cast out the wheat The very stores they had on board; into the sea So firmly did they now depend on what Paul had said.
Related Commentaries of Acts 27:33
Acts 27:33-38
33 And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
34 Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you.
35 And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.
36 Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat.
37 And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls.
38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea.