But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country;

But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven to and fro in the'sea of Adria, about midnight the sailors surmised that they were drawing near to some country:

But after the fourteenth night was come, as we were sailing in Adria, about midnight, the shipmen deemed that they discovered some country.

And when the fourteenth night was come, we being driven about in Adria, towards the middle of the night the sailors supposed that some land neared them,

But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven to and fro in the sea of Adria, about midnight the sailors surmised that they were drawing near to some country;

When the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen suspected that they drew near to some country:

And when the fourteenth night came, we being borne up and down in the Adria, toward the middle of the night the sailors were supposing that some country drew nigh to them;

It was now the fourteenth night, and we were drifting through the Sea of Adria, when, about midnight, the sailors suspected that land was close at hand.

But when the fourteenth day came, while we were going here and there in the Adriatic sea, about the middle of the night the sailors had an idea that they were getting near land;

Then, after the fourteenth night arrived, as we were navigating in the sea of Adria, about the middle of the night, the sailors believed that they saw some portion of the land.

It was now the fourteenth night of the storm, and we were drifting about in the Adriatic Sea, when, about midnight, the sailors began to suspect that they were drawing near land.

The fourteenth night - From the time when the tempest commenced.
In Adria - In the Adriatic Sea. This sea is situated between Italy and Dalmatia, now called the Adriatic Gulf. But among the ancients the name was given not only to that gulf, but to the whole sea lying between Greece, Italy, and Africa, including the Sicilian and Ionian Sea. It is evident from the narrative that they were not in the Adriatic Gulf, but in the vicinity of Malta.
Deemed - Judged. Probably by the appearance of the sea.

Driven up and down in Adria - See the note on Acts 27:17.
Deemed that they drew near to some country - They judged so, either by the smell of land, which those used to the sea can perceive at a considerable distance, or by the agitation of the sea, rippling of the tide, flight of sea-birds, etc.

(7) But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in (e) Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed (f) that they drew near to some country;
(7) We attain and come to the promised and sure salvation through the midst of tempests and death itself.
(e) For Ptolemy writes that the Adriatic Sea beats upon the east shore of Cecilia.
(f) Or, some country drew near to them.

But when the fourteenth night was come,.... From their setting out from the Fair Havens in Crete, or from the beginning of the storm:
as they were driven up and down in Adria: or "in the Adriatic sea", as the Syriac version renders it: the Adriatic sea is now called by the Turks the gulf of Venice, and the straits of Venice, and sometimes the Venetian sea (i); but formerly the Adriatic sea included more than the Venetian gulf; it took in the Ionian and Sicilian seas, and had its name from the city Adria, a colony of the Tuscans (k). It is called by Ptolomy (l) Hadria, and reckoned a city of the Picenes. Pliny (m) places it near the river Padus, and calls it Atriae, a town of the Tuscans, which had a famous port, from whence the sea was before called Atriatic, which is now Adriatic. Adria, Justin (n) says, which is near to the Illyrian sea, and gave name to the Adriatic sea, is a Grecian city; and from this place the ancestors of Adrian, the Roman emperor, originally came; and all the sea between Illyricum and Italy is called the Adriatic; and from the beginning of it, which is at the city of Venice, unto Garganus, a mountain in Italy, and Dyrrachium, a city of Macedonia, it is 600 miles in length, and its largest breadth is 200, and the least 150, and the mouth of it 60. The other part of the sea, which washes Macedonia and Epirus, is called the Ionian sea. Moreover, this whole sea is called the superior sea, with respect to the Tyrrhenian, which dashes the other shore of Italy, and is called the inferior (o). In this same sea, Josephus (p), the historian, was shipwrecked as he was on a voyage to Rome: his account is this;
"I came to Rome, having gone through many dangers by sea, for our ship being sunk in the middle of Adria, being in number about six hundred, we swam all night; and about break of day, by the providence of God, a ship of Cyrene appeared to us, in which I, and some others, in all eighty, getting before the rest, were received into it, and so got safe to Dicearchia, which the Italians call Puteoli;''
a place afterwards mentioned, where the apostle also arrived. And the sea itself is often, by the poets (q) called Adria, as here, and is represented as a very troublesome sea; and here Paul, and the ship's company, were driven to and fro by the storm,
when about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country: about the middle of the night the mariners thought, by some observations they made, that they were nigh land; or, as it is in the Greek text, "that some country drew near to them"; which well agrees with the language and sense of seafaring persons, to whose sight the land seems to draw near them, or depart from them, when they draw near, or depart from that: the Ethiopic version is, "they thought they should have seen a city"; they had a notion of some city near; and the Arabic version, "they thought to know in what country, or place" they were; and therefore did as follows.
(i) Hyde not. in Peritzol. Itinera Mundi, p. 53, 54. (k) Alex. ab. Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 28. (l) Geograph. l. 3. c. 1. (m) Nat. Hist. l. 3. c. 16. (n) Hist ex Trogo, l. 20. c. 1. (o) Pausanias, Eliac. 1. sive, l. 5. p. 337. (p) In Vita sua, sect. 3. p. 905. (q) Horat. Carnin. l. 1. ode 3. & l. 3. ode. 3. 9. Ovid. Trist, l. 1, eleg. 11.

when the fourteenth night was come--from the time they left Fair Havens.
as we were driven--drifting
up and down in Adria--the Adriatic, that sea which lies between Greece and Italy.
about midnight the shipmen deemed--no doubt from the peculiar sound of the breakers.
that they drew near some country--"that some land was approaching them." This nautical language gives a graphic character to the narrative.

Driven up and down in Adria. The central basin of the Mediterranean, between Sicily on the west and Greece on the east, was called by the old geographers "Adria," or the Adriatic Sea. The name is now confined to the Gulf of Venice.
The shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country. They probably heard the awful roar of the breakers.
Sounded, and found it twenty fathoms. One hundred and twenty feet. The shallowness showed that they approached a coast, especially as it grew shallower every time the lead was cast.
Fearing . . . rocks. It was night, and they could hear the sound of the breakers. By day they might avoid the rocks. Hence they cast anchor, and "wished for day."
Four anchors. Because so many were needed to hold the ship.
As the shipmen were about to flee. The sailors were about to take the boat, under false pretence, and abandon the ship. For the safety of all it was needful that they remain, in order to manage the ship when it was run ashore. Hence the centurion, at Paul's request, cut off the boat and let it drift away.

The fourteenth night - Since they left Crete, Acts 27:18-19. In the Adriatic sea - So the ancients called all that part of the Mediterranean, which lay south of Italy.