Luke 15:15
New International Version
So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.

New Living Translation
He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

English Standard Version
So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

Berean Standard Bible
So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

Berean Literal Bible
And having gone, he joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

King James Bible
And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

New King James Version
Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

New American Standard Bible
So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

NASB 1995
“So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

NASB 1977
“And he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

Legacy Standard Bible
So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

Amplified Bible
So he went and forced himself on one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

Christian Standard Bible
Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

American Standard Version
And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And he joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him to a field to herd pigs.

Contemporary English Version
He went to work for a man in that country, and the man sent him out to take care of his pigs.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he went and cleaved to one of the citizens of that country. And he sent him into his farm to feed swine.

English Revised Version
And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
So he got a job from someone in that country and was sent to feed pigs in the fields.

Good News Translation
So he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him out to his farm to take care of the pigs.

International Standard Version
So he went out to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

Literal Standard Version
and having gone on, he joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed pigs,

Majority Standard Bible
So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

New American Bible
So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.

NET Bible
So he went and worked for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.

New Revised Standard Version
So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.

New Heart English Bible
He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

Webster's Bible Translation
And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

Weymouth New Testament
So he went and hired himself to one of the inhabitants of that country, who sent him on to his farm to tend swine;

World English Bible
He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

Young's Literal Translation
and having gone on, he joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him to the fields to feed swine,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
14After he had spent all he had, a severe famine swept through that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing.…

Cross References
Matthew 7:6
Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

Luke 15:14
After he had spent all he had, a severe famine swept through that country, and he began to be in need.

Luke 15:16
He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing.


Treasury of Scripture

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

he went.

Luke 15:13
And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

Exodus 10:3
And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.

2 Chronicles 28:22
And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz.

to feed.

Luke 8:32-34
And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them…

Ezekiel 16:52,63
Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters…

Nahum 3:6
And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.

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Citizen Citizens Country Farm Feed Fields Hands Hired Inhabitants Joined Pigs Swine Tend
Luke 15
1. The parable of the lost sheep;
8. of the piece of silver;
11. of the prodigal son.














(15) Joined himself.--Literally clave to, or, attached himself to. The verb is the same as that used of the husband cleaving to his wife in Matthew 19:5, and thus expresses the absolute dependence of the famished man upon one who was ready to help him.

To a citizen.--Literally, to one of the citizens. In the outer story of the parable, this would emphasise the misery into which the man had fallen. The son of Abraham had to depend upon the bounty of an alien. In the two lines of interpretation, the "citizen" is one who all along has been of the world, worldly, living for no higher end than gain or pleasure. The prodigal is as one who, called to a higher life, has forfeited its blessedness, and now depends for such joy as he is capable of on those who are more completely identified with evil. It is, perhaps, natural that as we diverge more widely from the primary scope of the parable, its application in detail should become more difficult; and looking at the parable, as giving an outline of the history of the human race, one fails to see who answers to the "citizen." Not the Tempter, the great author of the world's evil, for the citizen is one of many. Nor is it the part of the citizen here to tempt to evil, but rather to be half-unconsciously God's instrument in punishing it--half-unconsciously, again, the means of preserving the evil-doer from perishing, and so of making a subsequent deliverance possible. It is truer to facts, therefore, to see in the "citizen" the representative of the wisdom and knowledge, maxims of worldly prudence or principles of ethics without religion, which for a time sustain the soul, and "still the hungry edge of appetite," and keep it from sinking utterly, while yet they leave it in its wretchedness and do not satisfy its cravings.

To feed swine.--We feel at once the shudder that would pass through the hearers of the parable as they listened to these words. Could there be for an Israelite a greater depth of debasement? In the inner teaching of the parable, this perhaps implies a state in which the man's will and energies have but the one work of ministering to his baser appetites. Such, in the long-run, is the outcome of the wisdom described in the previous note as answering to the "citizen."

Verse 15. - And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. "That citizen," says St. Bernard, quoted by Archbishop Trench, "I cannot understand as other than one of the malignant spirits, who in that they sin with an irremediable obstinacy, and have passed into a permanent disposition of malice and wickedness, are no longer guests and strangers, but citizens and abiders in the land of sin." This is a true picture of the state of such a lost soul, which in despair has yielded itself up to the evil one and his angels and their awful prompt-tugs and suggestions; but the heathen citizen is well represented by the ordinary sordid man of the world, who engages in any infamous calling, and in the carrying on of which he employs his poor degraded ruined brothers and sisters. To feed swine. What a shudder must have passed through the auditory when the Master reached this climax of the prodigal's degradation I For a young Israelite noble, delicately nurtured and trained in the worship of the chosen people, to be reduced to the position of a herdsman of those unclean creatures for which they entertained such a loathing and abhorrence that they would not even name them, but spoke of a pig as the other thing!

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
[So]
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

he went
πορευθεὶς (poreutheis)
Verb - Aorist Participle Passive - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 4198: To travel, journey, go, die.

[and] hired himself out
ἐκολλήθη (ekollēthē)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2853: From kolla; to glue, i.e. to stick.

to a
ἑνὶ (heni)
Adjective - Dative Masculine Singular
Strong's 1520: One. (including the neuter Hen); a primary numeral; one.

citizen
πολιτῶν (politōn)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural
Strong's 4177: A citizen, fellow-citizen. From polis; a townsman.

of that
ἐκείνης (ekeinēs)
Demonstrative Pronoun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 1565: That, that one there, yonder. From ekei; that one (neuter) thing); often intensified by the article prefixed.

country,
χώρας (chōras)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 5561: Feminine of a derivative of the base of chasma through the idea of empty expanse; room, i.e. A space of territory.

[who]
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

sent
ἔπεμψεν (epempsen)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 3992: To send, transmit, permit to go, put forth.

him
αὐτὸν (auton)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

into
εἰς (eis)
Preposition
Strong's 1519: A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.

his
αὐτοῦ (autou)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

fields
ἀγροὺς (agrous)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 68: From ago; a field; genitive case, the country; specially, a farm, i.e. Hamlet.

to feed
βόσκειν (boskein)
Verb - Present Infinitive Active
Strong's 1006: To feed, pasture. A prolonged form of a primary verb; to pasture; by extension to, fodder; reflexively, to graze.

[the] pigs.
χοίρους (choirous)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5519: A swine, hog, sow. Of uncertain derivation; a hog.


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NT Gospels: Luke 15:15 He went and joined himself to one (Luke Lu Lk)
Luke 15:14
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