Luke 17:30-37

17:30 It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 17:31 On that day, anyone who is on the roof, ¹  with his goods in the house, must not come down ²  to take them away, and likewise the person in the field must not turn back. 17:32 Remember Lot’s wife! ³  17:33 Whoever tries to keep ⁴  his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life ⁵  will preserve it. 17:34 I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. ⁶  17:35 There will be two women grinding grain together; ⁷  one will be taken and the other left.”

17:36 [[EMPTY]] ⁸ 

17:37 Then ⁹  the disciples ¹⁰  said ¹¹  to him, “Where, ¹²  Lord?” He replied to them, “Where the dead body ¹³  is, there the vultures ¹⁴  will gather.” ¹⁵ 

¹ sn Most of the roofs in the NT were flat roofs made of pounded dirt, sometimes mixed with lime or stones, supported by heavy wooden beams. They generally had an easy means of access, either a sturdy wooden ladder or stone stairway, sometimes on the outside of the house.

² sn The swiftness and devastation of the judgment will require a swift escape. There is no time to come down from one’s roof and pick up anything from inside one’s home.

³ sn An allusion to Gen 19:26. The warning about Lot’s wife is not to look back and long to be where one used to be. The world is being judged, and the person who delays or turns back will be destroyed.

⁴ tn Or “tries to preserve”; Grk “seeks to gain.”

⁵ sn Whoever loses his life. Suffering and persecution caused by the world, even to death, cannot stop God from saving (Luke 12:4-6).

⁶ sn There is debate among commentators and scholars over the phrase one will be taken and the other left about whether one is taken for judgment or for salvation. If the imagery is patterned after the rescue of Noah from the flood and Lot from Sodom, as some suggest, the ones taken are the saved (as Noah and Lot were) andthose left behind are judged. The imagery, however, is not directly tied to theidentification of the two groups. Its primary purposein context is topicture the sudden, surprisingseparation of the righteous and the judged (i.e., condemned) at the return of the Son of Man.

⁷ tn Grk “at the same place.” According to L&N 46.16, this refers to a hand mill normally operated by two women.

⁸ tc Several mss (D ˹³ [579] 700 al lat sy) add (with several variations among these witnesses) 17:36 “There will be two in the field; one will be taken and the other left.” It is not well enough attested to be original. Further, it is an assimilation to the parallel in Matt 24:40, which marks the addition as secondary. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.

⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

¹⁰ tn Grk “they”; the referent (the disciples, v. 22) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn Grk “answering, they said to him.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified in the translation.

¹² sn The question “Where, Lord?” means, “Where will the judgment take place?”

¹³ tn Or “corpse.”

¹⁴ tn The same Greek term can refer to “eagles” or “vultures” (L&N 4.42; BDAG 22 s.v. ἀετός), but in this context it must mean vultures, because the gruesome image is one of dead bodies being consumed by scavengers.

¹⁵ tn Grk “will be gathered.” The passive construction has been translated as an active one in English.