and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.
Paul and the Ephesians parted like lovers torn apart by violence, neither willing but both forced to it. Yet Providence smiled on their voyage: winds favored them, they found a ship to Phoenicia waiting, and the whole journey fell out so perfectly timed that we must cry, God makes our way perfect.
AI summary
Commenting on Acts 21:1-7
And when we had taken our leave one of another,.... The Alexandrian copy reads, "having prayed, we saluted one another"; with a kiss, as in Act 20:37 and so parted: we took ship; or went aboard the ship, and they returned home again; to their own houses, as the Syriac version renders it; for by "their own", as it is in the Greek text, cannot...
Taken - leave - Ασπασαμενοι; Having given each other the kiss of peace, as was the constant custom of the Jews and primitive Christians. They returned home - That is, the men, their wives, and their children.