21. After the men had gone without food for a long time, Paul stood up before them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me. You should not have sailed from Crete. Then you would not have all this trouble and loss.
22. But now I tell you to cheer up because none of you will die. Only the ship will be lost.
23. Last night an angel came to me from the God I belong to and worship.
24. The angel said, ‘Paul, do not be afraid. You must stand before Caesar. And God has promised you that he will save the lives of everyone sailing with you.’
25. So men, have courage. I trust in God that everything will happen as his angel told me.
26. But we will crash on an island.”
27. On the fourteenth night we were still being carried around in the Adriatic Sea. About midnight the sailors thought we were close to land,
28. so they lowered a rope with a weight on the end of it into the water. They found that the water was one hundred twenty feet deep. They went a little farther and lowered the rope again. It was ninety feet deep.
29. The sailors were afraid that we would hit the rocks, so they threw four anchors into the water and prayed for daylight to come.
30. Some of the sailors wanted to leave the ship, and they lowered the lifeboat, pretending 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 fourteen days you have been waiting and watching and not eating.
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.