Acts 21:5

5 When our days there were ended, we left and proceeded on our journey; and all of them, with wives and children, escorted us outside the city. There we knelt down 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 came in sight of Cyprus; and leaving it on our left, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, because the ship was to unload its cargo there.
4 We looked up the disciples and stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
5 When our days there were ended, we left and proceeded on our journey; and all of them, with wives and children, escorted us outside the city. There we knelt down on the beach and prayed
6 and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.
7 When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais; and we greeted the believers and stayed with them for one day.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.