Luke 14:35

14:35 It is of no value ¹  for the soil or for the manure pile; it is to be thrown out. ²  The one who has ears to hear had better listen!” ³ 

Luke 1:44

1:44 For the instant ⁴  the sound of your greeting reached my ears, ⁵  the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁶ 

Luke 9:44

9:44 “Take these words to heart, ⁷  for the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.” ⁸ 

Luke 8:8

8:8 But ⁹  other seed fell on good soil and grew, ¹⁰  and it produced a hundred times as much grain.” ¹¹  As he said this, ¹²  he called out, “The one who has ears to hear had better listen!” ¹³ 

¹ tn Or “It is not useful” (L&N 65.32).

² tn Grk “they throw it out.” The third person plural with unspecified subject is a circumlocution for the passive here.

³ tn The translation “had better listen!” captures the force of the third person imperative more effectively than the traditional “let him hear,” which sounds more like a permissive than an imperative to the modern English reader. This was Jesus’ common expression to listen and heed carefully (cf. Matt 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 8:8).

⁴ tn Grk “for behold.”

⁵ tn Grk “when the sound of your greeting [reached] my ears.”

⁶ sn On the statement the baby in my womb leaped for joy see both 1:14 and 1:47. This notes a fulfillment of God’s promised word.

⁷ tn Grk “Place these words into your ears,” an idiom. The meaning is either “do not forget these words” (L&N 29.5) or “Listen carefully to these words” (L&N 24.64). See also Exod 17:14. For a variation of this expression, see Luke 8:8.

⁸ tn The plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is considered by some to be used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women (cf. NRSV, “into human hands”; TEV, “to the power of human beings”). However, because this can be taken as a specific reference to the group responsible for Jesus’ arrest, where it is unlikely women were present (cf. Matt 26:47-56; Mark 14:43-52; Luke 22:47-53; John 18:2-12), the word “men” has been retained in the translation. There may also be a slight wordplay with “the Son of Man” earlier in the verse.

¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in the final stage of the parable.

¹¹ tn Grk “when it grew, after it grew.”

¹² sn Unlike the parallel accounts in Matt 13:8 and Mark 4:8, there is no distinction in yield in this version of the parable.

¹³ tn Grk “said these things.”

¹⁴ tn The translation “had better listen!” captures the force of the third person imperative more effectively than the traditional “let him hear,” which sounds more like a permissive than an imperative to the modern English reader. This was Jesus’ common expression to listen and heed carefully (cf. Matt 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 14:35).