11:12 The one who denounces 1 his neighbor lacks wisdom, 2
but the one who has discernment 3 keeps silent. 4
53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, 5
one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;
people hid their faces from him; 6
he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. 7
10:16 “The one who listens 8 to you listens to me, 9 and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects 10 the one who sent me.” 11
18:9 Jesus 12 also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down 13 on everyone else.
18:1 Then 14 Jesus 15 told them a parable to show them they should always 16 pray and not lose heart. 17
1 tn Heb “despises” (so NASB) or “belittles” (so NRSV). The participle בָּז (baz, from בּוּז, buz) means “to despise; to show contempt for” someone. It reflects an attitude of pride and judgmentalism. In view of the parallel line, in this situation it would reflect perhaps some public denunciation of another person.
2 tn Heb “heart.” The noun לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as a metonymy of association for wisdom, since the heart is often associated with knowledge and wisdom (BDB 524 s.v. 3.a).
3 tn Heb “a man of discernment.”
4 sn The verb translated “keeps silence” (יַחֲרִישׁ, yakharish) means “holds his peace.” Rather than publicly denouncing another person’s mistake or folly, a wise person will keep quiet about it (e.g., 1 Sam 10:27). A discerning person realizes that the neighbor may become an opponent and someday retaliate.
5 tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).
6 tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).
7 sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.
8 tn Grk “hears you”; but as the context of vv. 8-9 makes clear, it is response that is the point. In contemporary English, “listen to” is one way to express this function (L&N 31.56).
9 sn Jesus linked himself to the disciples’ message: Responding to the disciples (listens to you) counts as responding to him.
10 tn The double mention of rejection in this clause – ἀθετῶν ἀθετεῖ (aqetwn aqetei) in the Greek text – keeps up the emphasis of the section.
11 sn The one who sent me refers to God.
12 tn Grk “He”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Grk “and despised.” This is a second parable with an explanatory introduction.
14 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
15 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
16 tn Or “should pray at all times” (L&N 67.88).
17 sn This is one of the few parables that comes with an explanation at the start: …they should always pray and not lose heart. It is part of Luke’s goal in encouraging Theophilus (1:4).
18 tn Grk “And Jesus.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
19 tc Most
20 tn Or “You will prostrate yourself in worship before…” The verb προσκυνέω (proskunew) can allude not only to the act of worship but the position of the worshiper. See L&N 53.56.
21 tc Most later
22 sn A quotation from Deut 6:13. The word “only” is an interpretive expansion not found in either the Hebrew or Greek (LXX) text of the OT.