Acts 27:34

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."

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 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.

36 They all felt better and started eating, too.