When they had been long without food, Paul stood up in the middle of them and said, “Sirs, you should have listened to me, and not have set sail from Crete and have gotten this injury and loss.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 21. Not … have saved this harm and loss, which you have brought upon you by not following my advice. Witham.—All the company being in consternation and hourly expectation of death, did not think of taking meat. For it appears they did not want provisions, and nothing else forced them to fast. Calmet.—The mildness of Saint Paul’s address to them on this occasion is admirable. He mixes no severe rebuke for their past want of confidence in his words, but seems only solicitous for their future belief. In telling them that none of them should perish, he does not utter a mere conjecture, but speaks with prophetic knowledge; and, if he says they were all given to him, it was not to enhance his own merit, but to engage their faith and confidence in his veracity. Saint John Chrysostom Act. hom. lii.