Acts 27:15

15 The sailors couldn’t turn the ship into the wind, so they gave up and let it run before the gale.

Acts 27:15 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 27:15

And when the ship was caught
By the wind, snatched up by it, and forcibly carried away:

and could not bear up into the wind;
and against it, or look it in the face, as the word signifies; could not ply to windward, the wind being so high and the sea so strong:

we let her drive;
about the sea, at pleasure, it being in vain to attempt to get her forward against the wind, or to direct her course.

Acts 27:15 In-Context

13 When a light wind began blowing from the south, the sailors thought they could make it. So they pulled up anchor and sailed close to the shore of Crete.

14 But the weather changed abruptly, and a wind of typhoon strength (called a “northeaster”) burst across the island and blew us out to sea.

15 The sailors couldn’t turn the ship into the wind, so they gave up and let it run before the gale.

16 We sailed along the sheltered side of a small island named Cauda, where with great difficulty we hoisted aboard the lifeboat being towed behind us.

17 Then the sailors bound ropes around the hull of the ship to strengthen it. They were afraid of being driven across to the sandbars of Syrtis off the African coast, so they lowered the sea anchor to slow the ship and were driven before the wind.