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Acts 27:28

in Acts 27

They took soundings and found that the water was twenty fathoms deep. Going a little farther, they took another set of soundings that read fifteen fathoms.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

and they sounded, and found twenty fathoms; and after a little space, they sounded again, and found fifteen fathoms.

KJV

And sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms.

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This verse in Acts 27

Commentary

6 notes on this verse
And sounded,.... Or let down their plummet, or sounding line; which was a line with a piece of lead at the end of it, which they let down into the water, and by that means found what depth it was, by which they could judge whether they were near land or not.

This site's exposition

the fourteenth night

on Acts 27:27-29

On the fourteenth night, about midnight, the sailors sensed they were approaching land. The soundings read twenty fathoms, then fifteen, and James Smith found the depths fit the approach to Saint Paul's Bay on Malta.

This site's exposition

twenty fathoms deep

Albert Barnes explains the sounding line, a weighted lead let down to find the depth, and reckons a fathom as six feet. Twenty fathoms is about one hundred twenty feet, and fifteen is about ninety. Such readings, John Gill notes, told sailors how near land lay.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

The defeating of the sailors' attempt to quit the ship; here was a new danger added to their distress, which they narrowly escaped. The treacherous design of the seamen, and that was to leave the sinking ship, which, though a piece of wisdom in others, yet in those that were entrusted with the care of it was the basest fraud that could be (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

And sounded - Βολισαντες, Heaving the lead. Twenty fathoms - Οργυιας εικοσι, About forty yards in depth. The οργυια is thus defined by the Etymologicon: Σημαινει την εκτασιν των χειρων, συν τῳ πλατει του Ϛηθους· It signifies the extent of the arms, together with the breadth of the breast. This is exactly the quantum of our fathom.
And sounded - To sound is to make use of a line and lead to ascertain the depth of water. Twenty fathoms - A fathom is six feet, or the distance from the extremity of the middle finger on one hand to the extremity of the other, when the arms are extended. The depth, therefore, was about 120 feet. Fifteen fathoms - They knew, therefore, that they were drawing near to shore.

The words behind it

14 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

1 in all, six open

Where this verse is studied

About Acts

The Pentecost, El Greco, about 1600, Museo del Prado. Public domain.
The Pentecost, El Greco, about 1600, Museo del Prado. Public domain.
Acts: the study guide →Read Acts 27 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); J. A. Alexander, The Acts of the Apostles Explained; James Smith, The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Acts 27 →