Luke 13:15-17

13:15 Then the Lord answered him, ¹  “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from its stall, ²  and lead it to water? ³  13:16 Then ⁴  shouldn’t ⁵  this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan ⁶  bound for eighteen long ⁷  years, be released from this imprisonment ⁸  on the Sabbath day?” 13:17 When ⁹  he said this all his adversaries were humiliated, ¹⁰  but ¹¹  the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things ¹²  he was doing. ¹³ 

¹ tn Grk “answered him and said.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been shortened to “answered him.”

² tn Grk “from the manger [feeding trough],” but by metonymy of part for whole this can be rendered “stall.”

³ sn The charge here is hypocrisy, but it is only part one of the response. Various ancient laws detail what was allowed with cattle; see Mishnah, m. Shabbat 5; CD 11:5-6.

⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to show the connection with Jesus’ previous statement.

⁵ tn Grk “is it not necessary that.” Jesus argues that no other day is more appropriate to heal a descendant of Abraham than the Sabbath, the exact opposite view of the synagogue leader.

⁶ sn Note that this is again a battle between Satan and God; see 11:18-23.

⁷ tn The word “long” reflects the emphasis added in the Greek text by ἰδού (idou). See BDAG 468 s.v. 1.

⁸ tn Or “bondage”; Grk “bond.”

⁹ tn Grk “And when.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹⁰ tn Or “were put to shame.”

¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

¹² sn Concerning all the wonderful things see Luke 7:16; 19:37.

¹³ tn Grk “that were being done by him.” The passive has been converted to an active construction in the translation.