Brothers, select from among you seven men with good reputations, who are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to take care of this matter.

"But as the time when [the fulfillment of] the promise [God had made] to Abraham approached, the number of people [i.e., Hebrews] in Egypt grew

But the [influence of the] message of God grew and [the number of disciples] multiplied.

And when Paul and Barnabas had appointed elders [for the churches] in every congregation and had prayed and fasted [over these elders], they committed them to [the care of] the Lord, in whom they had come to trust.

But Paul chose Silas and, after being commended to the [care and] favor of the Lord by the brothers, he left,

So, the churches [of the region] were being [spiritually] strengthened in the faith and grew in number daily.

And on the first day of the week [i.e., Sunday], when we [disciples] had gathered together to break bread [i.e., the Lord's Supper. See I Cor. 11:20-24], Paul delivered a message that lasted until midnight, [since] he was planning to leave [Troas] the next day.

When they had gone without food for a long time, Paul stood in the middle of the crew and spoke, "Men, you should have listened to me and not sailed for Crete and thereby have to experience such suffering and loss.

When the fourteenth night came, and while we were being tossed around [helplessly] in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the crew suspected they were nearing land.

The crew had [by now] lowered the life-boat into the water, pretending to be dropping anchors from the bow, [but were in reality] attempting to abandon ship.

As it was dawning, Paul urged the crew to eat something, saying, "You have been waiting for fourteen days [for the weather to break] and you have continued to fast [all that time], eating nothing [at all].