Luke 7:32

7:32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another, ¹ 

‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; ² 

we wailed in mourning, ³  yet you did not weep.’

Luke 8:8

8:8 But ⁴  other seed fell on good soil and grew, ⁵  and it produced a hundred times as much grain.” ⁶  As he said this, ⁷  he called out, “The one who has ears to hear had better listen!” ⁸ 

Luke 11:7

11:7 Then ⁹  he will reply ¹⁰  from inside, ‘Do not bother me. The door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. ¹¹  I cannot get up and give you anything.’ ¹² 

[7:32]  ¹ tn Grk “They are like children sitting…and calling out…who say.”

[7:32]  ² sn ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance…’ The children of this generation were making the complaint (see vv. 33-34) that others were not playing the game according to the way they played the music. John and Jesus did not follow “their tune.” Jesus’ complaint was that this generation wanted things their way, not God’s.

[7:32]  ³ tn The verb ἐθρηνήσαμεν (eqrhnhsamen) refers to the loud wailing and lamenting used to mourn the dead in public in 1st century Jewish culture.

[8:8]  ⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in the final stage of the parable.

[8:8]  ⁵ tn Grk “when it grew, after it grew.”

[8:8]  ⁶ sn Unlike the parallel accounts in Matt 13:8 and Mark 4:8, there is no distinction in yield in this version of the parable.

[8:8]  ⁷ tn Grk “said these things.”

[8:8]  ⁸ tn The translation “had better listen!” captures the force of the third person imperative more effectively than the traditional “let him hear,” which sounds more like a permissive than an imperative to the modern English reader. This was Jesus’ common expression to listen and heed carefully (cf. Matt 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 14:35).

[11:7]  ⁷ tn Κἀκεῖνος (kakeino") has been translated “Then he.”

[11:7]  ⁸ tn Grk “answering, he will say.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “he will reply.”

[11:7]  ⁹ tn Grk “my children are with me in the bed.” In Jewish homes in the time of Jesus, the beds were often all together in one room; thus the householder may be speaking of individual beds (using a collective singular) rather than a common bed.

[11:7]  ¹⁰ tn The syntax of vv. 6-7 is complex. In the Greek text Jesus’ words in v. 6 begin as a question. Some see Jesus’ question ending at v. 6, but the reply starting in v. 8 favors extending the question through the entire illustration. The translation breaks up the long sentence at the beginning of v. 7 and translates Jesus’ words as a statement for reasons of English style.