Bible Strands
Acts 27:42
The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners so none of them could swim to freedom.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator describes a critical moment during a shipwreck when the vessel has run aground and the stern is breaking apart. The soldiers on board form a plan to execute the captured prisoners to prevent escape.
The words — The text highlights στρατιωτῶν (stratiōtōn, soldiers) and βουλὴ (boulē, plan) to show the military unit actively formulating a lethal strategy. The verb ἐγένετο (egeneto, was) indicates the plan was actively taking shape among them.
The thread — This military conspiracy against captives echoes the violence in dark places noted in Psalms 74:20 and the shared fate of humanity in Ecclesiastes 9:3. It stands in direct contrast to Proverbs 12:10, which defines righteous mercy against the cruelty of the wicked.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that human plans to eliminate the vulnerable can be directly interrupted by deliberate intervention. It requires the reader to observe how authority figures can either enforce destruction or preserve life in moments of crisis.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.
Cross-references
- Psalms 74:20 Consider Your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
- Proverbs 12:10 A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are only cruelty.
- Ecclesiastes 9:3 This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.
- Mark 15:15 And wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed Him over to be crucified.
- Luke 23:40 But the other one rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same judgment?
- Acts 12:19 After Herod had searched for him unsuccessfully, he examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent some time there.