Luke 14:23

14:23 So ¹  the master said to his ²  slave, ‘Go out to the highways ³  and country roads ⁴  and urge ⁵  people ⁶  to come in, so that my house will be filled. ⁷ 

Genesis 19:3

19:3 But he urged ⁸  them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate.

Genesis 19:2

19:2 He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night ⁹  and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.” ¹⁰  “No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.” ¹¹ 

Genesis 4:8

4:8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” ¹²  While they were in the field, Cain attacked ¹³  his brother ¹⁴  Abel and killed him.

Acts 16:14

16:14 A ¹⁵  woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth ¹⁶  from the city of Thyatira, ¹⁷  a God-fearing woman, listened to us. ¹⁸  The Lord opened her heart to respond ¹⁹  to what Paul was saying.

[14:23]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the master’s response to the slave’s report.

[14:23]  ² tn Grk “the”; in context the article is used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[14:23]  ³ sn Go out to the highways and country roads. This suggests the inclusion of people outside the town, even beyond the needy (poor, crippled, blind, and lame) in the town, and so is an allusion to the inclusion of the Gentiles.

[14:23]  ⁴ tn The Greek word φραγμός (fragmo") refers to a fence, wall, or hedge surrounding a vineyard (BDAG 1064 s.v. 1). “Highways” and “country roads” probably refer not to separate places, but to the situation outside the town where the rural roads run right alongside the hedges or fences surrounding the fields (cf. J. A. Fitzmyer, Luke [AB], 1057).

[14:23]  ⁵ tn Traditionally “force” or “compel,” but according to BDAG 60 s.v. ἀναγκάζω 2 this is a weakened nuance: “strongly urge/invite.” The meaning in this context is more like “persuade.”

[14:23]  ⁶ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[14:23]  ⁷ sn So that my house will be filled. God will bless many people.

[19:3]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb פָּצַר (patsar, “to press, to insist”) ironically foreshadows the hostile actions of the men of the city (see v. 9, where the verb also appears). The repetition of the word serves to contrast Lot to his world.

[19:2]  ⁹ tn The imperatives have the force of invitation.

[19:2]  ¹⁰ tn These two verbs form a verbal hendiadys: “you can rise up early and go” means “you can go early.”

[19:2]  ¹¹ sn The town square refers to the wide street area at the gate complex of the city.

[4:8]  ¹² tc The MT has simply “and Cain said to Abel his brother,” omitting Cain’s words to Abel. It is possible that the elliptical text is original. Perhaps the author uses the technique of aposiopesis, “a sudden silence” to create tension. In the midst of the story the narrator suddenly rushes ahead to what happened in the field. It is more likely that the ancient versions (Samaritan Pentateuch, LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac), which include Cain’s words, “Let’s go out to the field,” preserve the original reading here. After writing אָחִיו (’akhiyv, “his brother”), a scribe’s eye may have jumped to the end of the form בַּשָּׂדֶה (basadeh, “to the field”) and accidentally omitted the quotation. This would be an error of virtual homoioteleuton. In older phases of the Hebrew script the sequence יו (yod-vav) on אָחִיו is graphically similar to the final ה (he) on בַּשָּׂדֶה.

[4:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “arose against” (in a hostile sense).

[4:8]  ¹⁴ sn The word “brother” appears six times in vv. 8-11, stressing the shocking nature of Cain’s fratricide (see 1 John 3:12).

[16:14]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “And a.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[16:14]  ¹⁶ tn On the term translated “a dealer in purple cloth” see BDAG 855 s.v. πορφυρόπωλις.

[16:14]  ¹⁷ sn Thyatira was a city in the province of Lydia in Asia Minor.

[16:14]  ¹⁸ tn The words “to us” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[16:14]  ¹⁹ tn Although BDAG 880 s.v. προσέχω 2.b gives the meaning “pay attention to” here, this could be misunderstood by the modern English reader to mean merely listening intently. The following context, however, indicates that Lydia responded positively to Paul’s message, so the verb here was translated “to respond.”