5 When it happened that we had accomplished the days, we departed and went on our journey. They all, with wives and children, brought us on our way until we were out of the city. Kneeling down on the beach, we prayed.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
With their wives and children. This was no small testimony of love, in that they accompanied Paul out of the city with their wives and children, which thing Luke doth report, partly that he might commend their godliness according as it deserved; partly that he might declare that Paul had that honor given him which was due to him. Whence we do also gather, that he meant nothing less than to provide for his own commodity, seeing that he was not kept back with so great good will, which was a pleasant bait to entice him to stay. And we must also note the solemn custom of praying in weightier affairs, and that being certified by God of the danger, they are more stirred up to pray.
Had accomplished those days - When those days were passed.
They all brought us on our way - They attended us. See the Acts 15:3 note; Romans 15:24 note; 1-Corinthians 16:6, 1-Corinthians 16:11 notes; 3-John 1:6 note. This was an expression of tender attachment, and of a deep interest in the welfare of Paul and his fellow-travelers.
We kneeled down - See the notes on Acts 20:36.
On the shore - Any place may be proper for prayer. See the notes on John 4:21-24. God is everywhere, and can as easily hear prayer on the seashore as in the most magnificent temple. This is an instance, as well as that in Acts 20:36, where the apostle evidently prayed with the church without a form of prayer. No man can believe that he thus poured forth the desires of his heart at parting, and commended them to God in a prescribed form of words. Scenes like this show more clearly than abstract arguments could do that such a form was not needed, and would not be used. Paul and his fellow-Christians, on the sand of the sea-shore, would pour forth the gushing emotions of their souls in language such as their circumstances would suggest, and no man can read this narrative in a dispassionate manner without believing that they offered an extempore prayer.
When we had accomplished those days - That is, the seven days mentioned in the preceding verse.
And they all brought us on our way, with wives and children - It is not likely that Paul, Silas, Luke, etc., had either wives or children with them; and it is more natural to suppose that the brethren of Tyre, with their wives and children are those that are meant; these, through affection to the apostles, accompanied them from their homes to the ship; and the coming out of the husbands, wives, and children, shows what a general and affectionate interest the preaching and private conversation of these holy men had excited.
Kneeled down on the shore, and prayed - As God fills heaven and earth, so he may be worshipped every where; as well, when circumstances require it, on the seashore as in the temple. We have already seen, in the case of Lydia, that the Jews had proseuchas by the river sides, etc.; and an observation in Tertullian seems to intimate that they preferred such places, and in the open air offered their petitions to God by the seashore: Omissis templis, per omne littus, quocumque in aperto aliquando jam preces ad coelum mittunt. Tertul. de Jejunio.
And when we had accomplished those days,.... The seven days before mentioned:
we departed and went our way; from their quarters where they lodged, or from some one house of the disciples, where they met, and had conversed together:
and they all brought us on our way, with wives and children, till we were out of the city; that is, the disciples, even all of them that dwelt in that city, with their whole families, their wives and children, accompanied the apostle and those that were with him, through the streets of the city of Tyre, till they came out of it to the shore, where lay the ship they were to go aboard; and which was a mark of their affection and respect to the apostle, as well as a token of their public spirit, that they were not ashamed of Christ and his ministers, nor of their profession of the Gospel:
and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed; which was agreeably to the custom of the Jews, who had, as Tertullian observes (w), their "orationes litterales", their prayers at the sea shore; See Gill on Acts 16:13.
(w) Ad nationes, l. 1. c. 13.
they all brought us on our way with wives and children . . . and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed--(See on Acts 20:36). Observe here that the children of these Tyrian disciples not only were taken along with their parents, but must have joined in this act of solemn worship. See on Ephesians 6:1.
*More commentary available at chapter level.