28. They threw a rope into the water with a weight on the end of it. They found that the water was 120 feet deep. They went a little farther and threw the rope in again. It was 90 feet deep.
29. The sailors were afraid that we would hit the rocks, so they threw four anchors into the water. Then they prayed for daylight to come.
30. Some of the sailors wanted to leave the ship, and they lowered the lifeboat. These sailors wanted the other men to think that they were throwing more anchors from the front of the ship.
31. But Paul told the officer and the other soldiers, “If these men do not stay in the ship, your lives cannot be saved!”
32. So the soldiers cut the ropes and let the lifeboat fall into the water.
33. Just before dawn Paul began persuading all the people to eat something. He said, “For the past 14 days you have been waiting and watching. You have not eaten.
34. Now I beg you to eat something. You need it to stay alive. None of you will lose even one hair off your heads.”
35. After he said this, Paul took some bread and thanked God for it before all of them. He broke off a piece and began eating.
36. All the men felt better. They all started eating too.
37. (There were 276 people on the ship.)
38. We ate all we wanted. Then we began making the ship lighter by throwing the grain into the sea.
39. When daylight came, the sailors saw land. They did not know what land it was, but they saw a bay with a beach. They wanted to sail the ship to the beach, if they could.
40. So they cut the ropes to the anchors and left the anchors in the sea. At the same time, they untied the ropes that were holding the rudders. Then they raised the front sail into the wind and sailed toward the beach.
41. But the ship hit a sandbank. The front of the ship stuck there and could not move. Then the big waves began to break the back of the ship to pieces.
42. The soldiers decided to kill the prisoners so that none of them could swim away and escape.
43. But Julius, the officer, wanted to let Paul live. He did not allow the soldiers to kill the prisoners. Instead he ordered everyone who could swim to jump into the water and swim to land.
44. The rest used wooden boards or pieces of the ship. And this is how all the people made it safely to land.