Luke 7:25

7:25 What ¹  did you go out to see? A man dressed in fancy ²  clothes? ³  Look, those who wear fancy clothes and live in luxury ⁴  are in kings’ courts! ⁵ 

Luke 21:34

Be Ready!

21:34 “But be on your guard ⁶  so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day close down upon you suddenly like a trap. ⁷ 

[7:25]  ¹ tn Grk “But what.” Here ἀλλά (alla, a strong contrastive in Greek) produces a somewhat awkward sense in English, and has not been translated. The same situation occurs at the beginning of v. 26.

[7:25]  ² tn Or “soft”; see L&N 79.100.

[7:25]  ³ sn The reference to fancy clothes makes the point that John was not rich or powerful, in that he did not come from the wealthy classes.

[7:25]  ⁴ tn See L&N 88.253, “to revel, to carouse, to live a life of luxury.”

[7:25]  ⁵ tn Or “palaces.”

[21:34]  ⁶ tn Grk “watch out for yourselves.”

[21:34]  ⁷ sn Or like a thief, see Luke 12:39-40. The metaphor of a trap is a vivid one. Most modern English translations traditionally place the words “like a trap” at the end of v. 34, completing the metaphor. In the Greek text (and in the NRSV and REB) the words “like a trap” are placed at the beginning of v. 35. This does not affect the meaning.