Acts 16:27-28

16:27 When the jailer woke up ¹  and saw the doors of the prison standing open, ²  he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, ³  because he assumed ⁴  the prisoners had escaped. 16:28 But Paul called out loudly, ⁵  “Do not harm yourself, ⁶  for we are all here!”

[16:27]  ¹ tn L&N 23.75 has “had awakened” here. It is more in keeping with contemporary English style, however, to keep the two verbal ideas parallel in terms of tense (“when the jailer woke up and saw”) although logically the second action is subsequent to the first.

[16:27]  ² tn The additional semantic component “standing” is supplied (“standing open”) to convey a stative nuance in English.

[16:27]  ³ sn Was about to kill himself. The jailer’s penalty for failing to guard the prisoners would have been death, so he contemplated saving the leaders the trouble (see Acts 12:19; 27:42).

[16:27]  ⁴ tn Or “thought.”

[16:28]  ⁵ tn Grk “But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying.” The dative phrase μεγάλῃ φωνῇ (megalh fwnh) has been simplified as an English adverb (“loudly”), and the participle λέγων (legwn) has not been translated since it is redundant in English.

[16:28]  ⁶ sn Do not harm yourself. Again the irony is that Paul is the agent through whom the jailer is spared.