Acts 21:5

5 When our time had come to an end, we departed. All of them, including women and children, accompanied us out of town where we knelt on the beach and prayed.

Acts 21:5 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 21:5

And when we had accomplished those days
The seven days before mentioned:

we departed and went our way;
from their quarters where they lodged, or from some one house of the disciples, where they met, and had conversed together:

and they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we
were out of the city;
that is, the disciples, even all of them that dwelt in that city, with their whole families, their wives and children, accompanied the apostle and those that were with him, through the streets of the city of Tyre, till they came out of it to the shore, where lay the ship they were to go aboard; and which was a mark of their affection and respect to the apostle, as well as a token of their public spirit, that they were not ashamed of Christ and his ministers, nor of their profession of the Gospel:

and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed;
which was agreeably to the custom of the Jews, who had, as Tertullian observes F23, their "orationes litterales", their prayers at the sea shore; (See Gill on Acts 16:13).


FOOTNOTES:

F23 Ad nationes, l. 1. c. 13.

Acts 21:5 In-Context

3 We spotted Cyprus, but passed by it on our left. We sailed on to the province of Syria and landed in Tyre, where the ship was to unload its cargo.
4 We found the disciples there and stayed with them for a week. Compelled by the Spirit, they kept telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem.
5 When our time had come to an end, we departed. All of them, including women and children, accompanied us out of town where we knelt on the beach and prayed.
6 We said good-bye to each other, then we boarded the ship and they returned to their homes.
7 Continuing our voyage, we sailed from Tyre and arrived in Ptolemais. We greeted the brothers and sisters there and spent a day with them.
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