Isaiah 33:21

33:21 Instead the Lord will rule there as our mighty king. ¹ 

Rivers and wide streams will flow through it; ² 

no war galley will enter; ³ 

no large ships will sail through. ⁴ 

Ezekiel 27:26-34

27:26 Your rowers have brought you into surging waters.

The east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the seas.

27:27 Your wealth, products, and merchandise, your sailors and captains,

your ship’s carpenters, ⁵  your merchants,

and all your fighting men within you,

along with all your crew who are in you,

will fall into the heart of the seas on the day of your downfall.

27:28 At the sound of your captains’ cry the waves will surge; ⁶ 

27:29 They will descend from their ships – all who handle the oar,

the sailors and all the sea captains – they will stand on the land.

27:30 They will lament loudly ⁷  over you and cry bitterly.

They will throw dust on their heads and roll in the ashes; ⁸ 

27:31 they will tear out their hair because of you and put on sackcloth,

and they will weep bitterly over you with intense mourning. ⁹ 

27:32 As they wail they will lament over you, chanting:

“Who was like Tyre, like a tower ¹⁰  in the midst of the sea?”

27:33 When your products went out from the seas,

you satisfied many peoples;

with the abundance of your wealth and merchandise

you enriched the kings of the earth.

27:34 Now you are wrecked by the seas, in the depths of the waters;

your merchandise and all your company have sunk ¹¹  along with you. ¹² 

Acts 27:19

27:19 and on the third day they threw the ship’s gear ¹³  overboard with their own hands.

Acts 27:30-32

27:30 Then when the sailors tried to escape from the ship and were lowering the ship’s boat into the sea, pretending ¹⁴  that they were going to put out anchors from the bow, 27:31 Paul said to the centurion ¹⁵  and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you ¹⁶  cannot be saved.” 27:32 Then the soldiers cut the ropes ¹⁷  of the ship’s boat and let it drift away. ¹⁸ 

Acts 27:40-41

27:40 So they slipped ¹⁹  the anchors ²⁰  and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the linkage ²¹  that bound the steering oars ²²  together. Then they hoisted ²³  the foresail ²⁴  to the wind and steered toward ²⁵  the beach. 27:41 But they encountered a patch of crosscurrents ²⁶  and ran the ship aground; the bow stuck fast and could not be moved, but the stern was being broken up by the force ²⁷  of the waves.

[33:21]  ¹ tn Heb “But there [as] a mighty one [will be] the Lord for us.”

[33:21]  ² tn Heb “a place of rivers, streams wide of hands [i.e., on both sides].”

[33:21]  ³ tn Heb “a ship of rowing will not go into it.”

[33:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “and a mighty ship will not pass through it.”

[27:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “your repairers of damage.” See v. 9.

[27:28]  ⁶ tn Compare this phrase to Isa 57:20 and Amos 8:8. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:561.

[27:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “make heard over you with their voice.”

[27:30]  ⁸ tn Note a similar expression to “roll in the ashes” in Mic 1:10.

[27:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “and they will weep concerning you with bitterness of soul, (with) bitter mourning.”

[27:32]  ¹⁰ tn As it stands, the meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear. The translation follows the suggestion of M. Dahood, “Accadian-Ugaritic dmt in Ezekiel 27:32,” Bib 45 (1964): 83-84. Several other explanations and emendations have been offered. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:83, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:85-86, for a list of options.

[27:34]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fallen.”

[27:34]  ¹² tn Heb “in the midst of you.”

[27:19]  ¹³ tn Or “rigging,” “tackle”; Grk “the ship’s things.” Here the more abstract “gear” is preferred to “rigging” or “tackle” as a translation for σκεῦος (skeuos) because in v. 40 the sailors are still able to raise the (fore)sail, which they could not have done if the ship’s rigging or tackle had been jettisoned here.

[27:30]  ¹⁴ tn BDAG 889 s.v. πρόφασις 2 states, “προφάσει ὡς under the pretext that, pretending that…Ac 27:30.” In other words, some of the sailors gave up hope that such efforts would work and instead attempted to escape while pretending to help.

[27:31]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.

[27:31]  ¹⁶ sn The pronoun you is plural in Greek.

[27:32]  ¹⁷ sn The soldiers cut the ropes. The centurion and the soldiers were now following Paul’s advice by cutting the ropes to prevent the sailors from escaping.

[27:32]  ¹⁸ tn Or “let it fall away.” According to BDAG 308 s.v. ἐκπίπτω 1 and 2 the meaning of the verb in this verse could be either “fall away” or “drift away.” Either meaning is acceptable, and the choice between them depends almost entirely on how one reconstructs the scene. Since cutting the boat loose would in any case result in it drifting away (whether capsized or not), the meaning “drift away” as a nautical technical term has been used here.

[27:40]  ¹⁹ tn That is, released. Grk “slipping…leaving.” The participles περιελόντες (perielonte") and εἴων (eiwn) have been translated as finite verbs due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[27:40]  ²⁰ tn The term is used of a ship’s anchor. (BDAG 12 s.v. ἄγκυρα a).

[27:40]  ²¹ tn Grk “bands”; possibly “ropes.”

[27:40]  ²² tn Or “rudders.”

[27:40]  ²³ tn Grk “hoisting…they.” The participle ἐπάραντες (eparante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[27:40]  ²⁴ tn Grk “sail”; probably a reference to the foresail.

[27:40]  ²⁵ tn BDAG 533 s.v. κατέχω 7 states, “hold course, nautical t.t., intr….κατεῖχον εἰς τὸν αἰγιαλόν they headed for the beach Ac 27:40.”

[27:41]  ²⁶ tn Grk “fell upon a place of two seas.” The most common explanation for this term is that it refers to a reef or sandbar with the sea on both sides, as noted in BDAG 245 s.v. διθάλασσος: the “τόπος δ. Ac 27:41 is a semantic unit signifying a point (of land jutting out with water on both sides).” However, Greek had terms for a “sandbank” (θῖς [qis], ταινία [tainia]), a “reef” (ἑρμα [Jerma]), “strait” (στενόν [stenon]), “promontory” (ἀρωτήρον [arwthron]), and other nautical hazards, none of which are used by the author here. NEB here translates τόπον διθάλασσον (topon diqalasson) as “cross-currents,” a proposal close to that advanced by J. M. Gilchrist, “The Historicity of Paul’s Shipwreck,” JSNT 61 (1996): 29-51, who suggests the meaning is “a patch of cross-seas,” where the waves are set at an angle to the wind, a particular hazard for sailors. Thus the term most likely refers to some sort of adverse sea conditions rather than a topographical feature like a reef or sandbar.

[27:41]  ²⁷ tn Or “violence” (BDAG 175 s.v. βία a).