Luke 15:13-15

15:13 After ¹  a few days, ²  the younger son gathered together all he had and left on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered ³  his wealth ⁴  with a wild lifestyle. 15:14 Then ⁵  after he had spent everything, a severe famine took place in that country, and he began to be in need. 15:15 So he went and worked for ⁶  one of the citizens of that country, who ⁷  sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ⁸ 

Luke 15:30

15:30 But when this son of yours ⁹  came back, who has devoured ¹⁰  your assets with prostitutes, ¹¹  you killed the fattened calf ¹²  for him!’

[15:13]  ¹ tn Grk “And after.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[15:13]  ² tn Grk “after not many days.”

[15:13]  ³ tn Or “wasted.” This verb is graphic; it means to scatter (L&N 57.151).

[15:13]  ⁴ tn Or “estate” (the same word has been translated “estate” in v. 12).

[15:14]  ⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the sequence of events in the parable. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.

[15:15]  ⁶ tn Grk “joined himself to” (in this case an idiom for beginning to work for someone).

[15:15]  ⁷ tn Grk “and he.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) and the personal pronoun have been translated by a relative pronoun to improve the English style.

[15:15]  ⁸ sn To a Jew, being sent to the field to feed pigs would be an insult, since pigs were considered unclean animals (Lev 11:7).

[15:30]  ⁹ sn Note the younger son is not “my brother” but this son of yours (an expression with a distinctly pejorative nuance).

[15:30]  ¹⁰ sn This is another graphic description. The younger son’s consumption had been like a glutton. He had both figuratively and literally devoured the assets which were given to him.

[15:30]  ¹¹ sn The charge concerning the prostitutes is unproven, but essentially the older brother accuses the father of committing an injustice by rewarding his younger son’s unrighteous behavior.

[15:30]  ¹² sn See note on the phrase “fattened calf” in v. 23.