Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
Parallel translations
- WEB “Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning.
- BSB Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.
- NKJV “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;
- NASB “Be prepared, and keep your lamps lit.
- NLT “Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Be dressed and ready with lamps burning, prepared for action. Disciples are to live in constant readiness for their Lord's return.
Overview
Using the image of servants girded for service with lamps lit, Jesus calls for watchful preparedness. This is the posture of those awaiting their master, alert and at their duty. It introduces His teaching on watchfulness for the return of the Son of Man, urging believers to live each day ready to meet Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 1 Pet 1:13Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
- Eph 6:14Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
- Matt 25:4–10But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
- Isa 5:27None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
- Matt 5:16Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
- Matt 25:1Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
- Isa 11:5And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
- Phil 2:15That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
- Prov 31:17She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
- 1 Kgs 18:46And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 12:35 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.