Acts 21:5

5 And when the days were filled [And the days fulfilled], we went forth, and all men with wives and children led forth us [till] without the city; and we kneeled in the sea brink, and we 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 And when we appeared to Cyprus, we left it at the left half, and sailed into Syria, and came to Tyre. For there the ship should be uncharged [Soothly there the ship was to put out the charge].
4 And when we found disciples, we dwelled there seven days; which said by Spirit to Paul, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.
5 And when the days were filled [And the days fulfilled], we went forth, and all men with wives and children led forth us [till] without the city; and we kneeled in the sea brink, and we prayed.
6 And when we had made farewell together, we went up into the ship; and they turned again into their own places [soothly they turned again into their own things].
7 And when the ship sailing was filled from Tyre, we came down to Ptolemais, and when we had greeted well the brethren [and the brethren greeted well], we dwelled one day at them.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.