Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 27:33

"And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take some food, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye wait and continue fasting, having taken nothing." — Acts 27:33 (ASV)

And while the day was coming on. At daybreak. It was before they had sufficient light to discern what they should do.

To take meat. Food. The word meat was formerly used to denote food of any kind.

That ye have tarried. That you have remained or been fasting.

Having taken nothing. No regular meal.

It cannot mean that they had lived entirely without food. They had been in so much danger, so constantly engaged, and so anxious about their safety, that they had taken no regular meal. Furthermore, what they had taken had been at irregular intervals and had been a scanty allowance.

Appian speaks of an army that for twenty days together had neither food nor sleep; by which he must mean that they neither ate full meals nor slept whole nights together. The same interpretation must be given to this phrase (Doddridge).

The effect of this must have been that they would be weak and exhausted, and little able to endure the fatigues that still remained.