Acts 27:34

34 I beg you, then, eat some food; you need it in order to survive. Not even a hair of your heads will be lost."

Acts 27:34 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 27:34

Wherefore I pray you to take some meat
To sit down composedly, and eat meat cheerfully and freely:

for this is for your health;
the Alexandrian copy reads, "for our health"; it was for the health of them all, that they might be better able to bear the shock and fatigue of the shipwreck, and be in better spirits, and in a better capacity to help themselves, and one another:

for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you;
a proverbial phrase, expressing the utmost safety of their lives, and therefore might cheerfully eat their food, and rest themselves, and be satisfied. To dream of shaving the hair, portended shipwreck to sailors; nor was it lawful for any to pare his nails, or cut off his hair, but in a storm; to which custom, some think, the apostle here alludes ^F23; see ( 1 Samuel 14:45 ) ( 2 Samuel 14:11 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 Kirchman. de funer. Rom. l. 2. c. 14. p. 212, 213.

Acts 27:34 In-Context

32 So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the boat and let it go.

33 Just before dawn, Paul begged them all to eat some food: "You have been waiting for fourteen days now, and all this time you have not eaten a thing.

34 I beg you, then, eat some food; you need it in order to survive. Not even a hair of your heads will be lost."

35 After saying this, Paul took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, broke it, and began to eat.

36 They took courage, and every one of them also ate some food.