Acts 16:27–28

16:27 When the jailer woke up102 and saw the doors of the prison standing open,103 he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,104 because he assumed105 the prisoners had escaped. 16:28 But Paul called out loudly,106 “Do not harm yourself,107 for we are all here!”

Sign up for the Verse of the Day

Get beautiful Bible art delivered to your inbox. We’ll send you a new verse every day to download or share.

102	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.
103	tn The additional semantic component “standing” is supplied (“standing open”) to convey a stative nuance in English.
104	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).
105	tn Or “thought.”
106	tn Grk “But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying.” The dative phrase μεγάλῃ φωνῇ (megalē phōnē) has been simplified as an English adverb (“loudly”), and the participle λέγων (legōn) has not been translated since it is redundant in English.
107	sn Do not harm yourself. Again the irony is that Paul is the agent through whom the jailer is spared.