Acts 27:34

34 Wherefore I pray you to take meat, for your health; for of none of you the hair of the head shall perish.

Acts 27:34 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 27:34

Wherefore I pray you to take some meat
To sit down composedly, and eat meat cheerfully and freely:

for this is for your health;
the Alexandrian copy reads, "for our health"; it was for the health of them all, that they might be better able to bear the shock and fatigue of the shipwreck, and be in better spirits, and in a better capacity to help themselves, and one another:

for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you;
a proverbial phrase, expressing the utmost safety of their lives, and therefore might cheerfully eat their food, and rest themselves, and be satisfied. To dream of shaving the hair, portended shipwreck to sailors; nor was it lawful for any to pare his nails, or cut off his hair, but in a storm; to which custom, some think, the apostle here alludes ^F23; see ( 1 Samuel 14:45 ) ( 2 Samuel 14:11 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 Kirchman. de funer. Rom. l. 2. c. 14. p. 212, 213.

Acts 27:34 In-Context

32 Then [the] knights cutted [cut] away the cords of the little boat, and suffered it to fall away.

33 And when the day was come, Paul prayed all men to take meat, and said [saying], The fourteenth day this day ye abide, and dwell fasting, and take nothing [nothing taken].

34 Wherefore I pray you to take meat, for your health; for of none of you the hair of the head shall perish.

35 And when he had said these things, Paul took bread, and did thankings to God in the sight of all men [And when he had said these things, he taking bread did thankings to God in the sight of all men]; and when he had broken, he began to eat.

36 And all were made of better comfort [Forsooth all made more patient, or hearty], and they took meat.