Acts 27:15

15 It hit the ship, and since it was impossible to keep the ship headed into the wind, we gave up trying and let it be carried along by the wind.

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 A soft wind from the south began to blow, and the men thought that they could carry out their plan, so they pulled up the anchor and sailed as close as possible along the coast of Crete.

14 But soon a very strong wind - the one called "Northeaster" - blew down from the island.

15 It hit the ship, and since it was impossible to keep the ship headed into the wind, we gave up trying and let it be carried along by the wind.

16 We got some shelter when we passed to the south of the little island of Cauda. There, with some difficulty we managed to make the ship's boat secure.

17 They pulled it aboard and then fastened some ropes tight around the ship. They were afraid that they might run into the sandbanks off the coast of Libya, so they lowered the sail and let the ship be carried by the wind.