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Luke 17

1He said to his disciples, “It is impossible for causes of stumbling not to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 2It would be better for him to have a millstone placed around his neck and be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4Even if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

5The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” 6The Lord said, “If you have faith like a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

7“Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at the table’? 8Will he not instead say to him, ‘Prepare my dinner, belt your waist, and serve me until I have eaten and drunk; afterward you may eat and drink’? 9Does he thank the slave because he did what he was ordered? 10So you too, when you have done everything you were ordered, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done what we were obliged to do.’”

11As he traveled toward Jerusalem, he passed between Samaria and Galilee. 12When he entered a village, ten men with defiling skin diseases met him. They stood at a distance 13and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” As they went, they were made clean. 15One of them, seeing that he had been healed, returned, glorifying God with a loud voice. 16He fell on his face at Jesus' feet, thanking him. He was a Samaritan. 17Jesus said, “Were not the ten made clean? Where are the nine? 18Was no one found returning to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19He said to him, “Rise and go. Your faith has saved you.”

20Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation, 21nor will they say, ‘Look, here!’ or, ‘There!’ For look, the kingdom of God is among you.”

22He said to the disciples, “Days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23They will say to you, ‘Look, there! Look, here!’ Do not go off or pursue them. 24For as lightning flashes and shines from one part under heaven to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. 25But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26Just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will also be in the days of the Son of Man: 27they ate, drank, married, and were given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28Likewise, as it happened in the days of Lot: they ate, drank, bought, sold, planted, and built. 29But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. 30It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

31“On that day, the one who is on the housetop, with his belongings in the house, must not go down to take them. Likewise, the one in the field must not turn back. 32Remember Lot's wife. 33Whoever seeks to secure his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will keep it alive. 34I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35There will be two women grinding together; one will be taken and the other left.” 37They asked him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the body is, there the vultures will also gather.”

Translation notes 6

17:1–4 — Stumbling and forgiveness. Stumbling describes being led into wrongdoing, not merely being offended. The little ones are vulnerable followers; they are not necessarily only children. “Brother” preserves the family language for a fellow disciple. “Against you” is explicit in verse 4, but not in the base's verse 3.

17:6–10 — Faith and slaves. The unusual condition about faith is retained without rewriting it to assert either that the apostles have none or that their faith is sufficient. A mulberry tree is named here, unlike the sycamore fig in 19:4. “Unworthy” can also be translated “unprofitable”; in this saying it denies a claim to special credit for fulfilling an obligation, not the disciples' value as persons. The master's behavior is the illustration, not a general endorsement of slaveholding.

17:11–19 — Healing and gratitude. “Between” is a possible sense of the geographic phrase; “through the midst of Samaria and Galilee” is another. No detailed route is reconstructed. The text explicitly calls the ten men. Cleansing, healing, and being saved remain distinct expressions; “Your faith has saved you” repeats 7:50 and 8:48.

17:20–21 — Kingdom among you. “With observation” concerns watching for a detectable arrival, not a claim that God's reign has no visible effects. “Among you” takes the plural group as the setting of the kingdom's presence. “Within you” is a serious alternative; “within your reach” is also proposed. This is a translation question, not a manuscript difference.

17:24–33 — Revelation and life. “In his day” follows the base despite its omission in some witnesses. The ordinary activities in the Noah and Lot comparisons are not individually labeled sinful. The warning stresses the sudden judgment. “Life,” also traditionally “soul,” continues the paradox of losing and preserving oneself.

17:34–37 — Taken, left, and the missing verse. Verse 35 explicitly uses feminine forms; verse 34 does not specify the sex of both people in the bed. The Greek base has no verse 36. Some witnesses add, “Two will be in a field; one will be taken and the other left.” It is translated here rather than inserted into the reading. The destination of those taken is not expressly named. “Vultures” is a contextual rendering of a word also used for eagles, in the image of birds gathering at a body; a detailed end-time sequence is not supplied.