And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again.
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.