Luke 14:29

14:29 Otherwise, ¹  when he has laid ²  a foundation and is not able to finish the tower, ³  all who see it ⁴  will begin to make fun of ⁵  him.

Luke 6:49

6:49 But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice ⁶  is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When ⁷  the river burst against that house, ⁸  it collapsed immediately, and was utterly destroyed!” ⁹ 

Luke 6:48

6:48 He is like a man ¹⁰  building a house, who dug down deep, ¹¹  and laid the foundation on bedrock. When ¹²  a flood came, the river ¹³  burst against that house but ¹⁴  could not shake it, because it had been well built. ¹⁵ 

¹ tn Grk “to complete it, lest.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation and ἵνα μήποτε ({ina mhpote, “lest”) has been translated as “Otherwise.”

² tn The participle θέντος (qentos) has been taken temporally.

³ tn The words “the tower” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

⁴ tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

⁵ tn Or “mock,” “ridicule.” The person who did not plan ahead becomes an object of joking and ridicule.

⁶ tn Grk “does not do [them].”

⁷ tn Grk “against which”; because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative clause was converted to a temporal clause in the translation and a new sentence started here.

⁸ tn Grk “it”; the referent (that house) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tn Grk “and its crash was great.”

¹¹ tn Here and in v. 49 the Greek text reads ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), while the parallel account in Matt 7:24-27 uses ἀνήρ (anhr) in vv. 24 and 26.

¹² tn There are actually two different Greek verbs used here: “who dug (ἔσκαψεν, eskayen) and dug deep (ἐβάθυνεν, ebaqunen).” Jesus is placing emphasis on the effort to which the man went to prepare his foundation.

¹³ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹⁴ sn The picture here is of a river overflowing its banks and causing flooding and chaos.

¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in the context.

¹⁶ tc Most mss, especially later ones (A C D Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 Ï latt), read “because he built [it] on the rock” rather than “because it had been well built” (Ì^75vid א B L W Ξ 33 579 892 1241 2542 pc sa). The reading of the later mss seems to be a harmonization to Matt 7:25, rendering it most likely secondary.