Luke 15:4

15:4 “Which one ¹  of you, if he has a hundred ²  sheep and loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture ³  and go look for ⁴  the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵ 

Luke 15:8

15:8 “Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins ⁶  and loses ⁷  one of them, ⁸  does not light a lamp, sweep ⁹  the house, and search thoroughly until she finds it?

Luke 19:10

19:10 For the Son of Man came ¹⁰  to seek and to save the lost.”

Genesis 45:28

45:28 Then Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive! I will go and see him before I die.”

Jeremiah 31:15-17

31:15 The Lord says,

“A sound is heard in Ramah, ¹¹ 

a sound of crying in bitter grief.

It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children

and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.” ¹² 

31:16 The Lord says to her, ¹³ 

“Stop crying! Do not shed any more tears! ¹⁴ 

For your heartfelt repentance ¹⁵  will be rewarded.

Your children will return from the land of the enemy.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹⁶ 

31:17 Indeed, there is hope for your posterity. ¹⁷ 

Your children will return to their own territory.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹⁸ 

Ezekiel 34:4

34:4 You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost, but with force and harshness ¹⁹  you have ruled over them.

Ezekiel 34:16

34:16 I will seek the lost and bring back the strays; I will bandage the injured and strengthen the sick, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them – with judgment!

Matthew 18:11-13

18:11 [[EMPTY]] ²⁰  18:12 What do you think? If someone ²¹  owns a hundred ²²  sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray? ²³  18:13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, ²⁴  he will rejoice more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.

[15:4]  ¹ tn Grk “What man.” The Greek word ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a somewhat generic sense.

[15:4]  ² sn This individual with a hundred sheep is a shepherd of modest means, as flocks often had up to two hundred head of sheep.

[15:4]  ³ tn Or “desert,” but here such a translation might suggest neglect of the 99 sheep left behind.

[15:4]  ⁴ tn Grk “go after,” but in contemporary English the idiom “to look for” is used to express this.

[15:4]  ⁵ sn Until he finds it. The parable pictures God’s pursuit of the sinner. On the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, see John 10:1-18.

[15:8]  ⁶ sn This silver coin is a drachma, equal to a denarius, that is, a day’s pay for the average laborer.

[15:8]  ⁷ tn Grk “What woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses.” The initial participle ἔχουσα (ecousa) has been translated as a finite verb parallel to ἀπολέσῃ (apolesh) in the conditional clause to improve the English style.

[15:8]  ⁸ tn Grk “one coin.”

[15:8]  ⁹ tn Grk “and sweep,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[19:10]  ¹⁰ sn The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost is Jesus’ mission succinctly defined. See Luke 15:1-32.

[31:15]  ¹¹ sn Ramah is a town in Benjamin approximately five miles (8 km) north of Jerusalem. It was on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem. Traditionally, Rachel’s tomb was located near there at a place called Zelzah (1 Sam 10:2). Rachel was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin and was very concerned about having children because she was barren (Gen 30:1-2) and went to great lengths to have them (Gen 30:3, 14-15, 22-24). She was the grandmother of Ephraim and Manasseh which were two of the major tribes in northern Israel. Here Rachel is viewed metaphorically as weeping for her “children,” the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, who had been carried away into captivity in 722 b.c.

[31:15]  ¹² tn Or “gone into exile” (cf. v. 16), though some English versions take this as meaning “dead” (e.g., NCV, CEV, NLT), presumably in light of Matt 2:18.

[31:16]  ¹³ tn The words “to her” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[31:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Refrain your voice from crying and your eyes from tears.”

[31:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “your work.” Contextually her “work” refers to her weeping and refusing to be comforted, that is, signs of genuine repentance (v. 15).

[31:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:17]  ¹⁷ tn For this nuance for the Hebrew word אַחֲרִית (’akharit) see BDB 31 s.v. אַחֲרִית d and compare usage in Pss 37:38; 109:13. Others translate “your future” but the “future” lies with the return of her descendants, her posterity.

[31:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[34:4]  ¹⁹ tn The term translated “harshness” is used to describe the oppression the Israelites suffered as slaves in Egypt (Exod 1:13).

[18:11]  ²⁰ tc The most important mss (א B L* Θ* Ë^1,13 33 892* pc e ff¹ sy^s sa) do not include 18:11 “For the Son of Man came to save the lost.” The verse is included in D L^mg W Θ^c 078^vid Ï lat sy^c,p,h, but is almost certainly not original, being borrowed, as it were, from the parallel in Luke 19:10. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number as well, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.

[18:12]  ²¹ tn Grk “a certain man.” The Greek word ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a somewhat generic sense.

[18:12]  ²² sn This individual with a hundred sheep is a shepherd of modest means, as flocks often had up to two hundred head of sheep.

[18:12]  ²³ sn Look for the one that went astray. The parable pictures God’s pursuit of the sinner. On the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, see John 10:1-18.

[18:13]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”