27:4a
Luke does not say how long the ship stayed at Sidon. It could have been less than an hour or more than a day. Do not say how much later it was.
After putting out from there, we sailed: It is implied that Paul and Luke returned to the ship. In some languages it is more natural to include that implied information. For example:
⌊We returned to the ship and⌋ from there/Sidon we put out to sea again
27:4b
we sailed to the lee of Cyprus: At that time of year the winds usually blew from somewhere between west and northwest in this region. The word lee refers to the downwind side of something. The lee of an island is sheltered somewhat from the wind. Here it refers to the southeast and east coast of the island of Cyprus up to the northeast tip of the island (the right side of the island on the picture below). Other ways to translate this phrase are:
sailed downwind of Cyprus
-or-
sailed under the shelter of Cyprus (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
traveled by ship along the sheltered side of the island of Cyprus
In some languages people are not familiar with sailing ships. If so, you may want to describe where they were. For example:
passed to the east of Cyprus
-or-
passed Cyprus on our left
Cyprus: Cyprus is a large island northwest of Israel. See how you spelled this name in 15:39.
because the winds were against us: The ship’s captain wanted to travel northwest. But the winds blew from the west or northwest at that time of year. A sailing ship cannot sail directly into the wind. Other ways to translate this clause are:
because the winds were blowing against us (Good News Translation)
-or-
because the winds were contrary (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
because the wind blew/came from the direction we wanted to go ⌊and so we could not sail that direction⌋
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