Make every effort to reconcile with your adversary while you are on your way to the magistrate. Otherwise, he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and the officer may throw you into prison.
Parallel translations
- WEB For when you are going with your adversary before the magistrate, try diligently on the way to be released from him, lest perhaps he drag you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.
- KJV When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.
- NKJV When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.
- NASB For when you are going with your accuser to appear before the magistrate, on the way, make an effort to settle with him, so that he does not drag you before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.
- NLT When you are on the way to court with your accuser, try to settle the matter before you get there. Otherwise, your accuser may drag you before the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, who will throw you into prison.
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
When headed to court with an accuser, settle on the way before judgment falls. Wise urgency in reconciliation pictures the need to make peace with God now.
Overview
Using a legal scenario, Jesus urges practical wisdom: settle disputes before they reach the judge and lead to imprisonment. Spiritually, this is an appeal to be reconciled to God urgently, before the day of judgment arrives. The verse warns that the time to seek mercy is now, while opportunity remains, pointing to the reconciliation found only in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Matt 5:23–26So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,
- Prov 25:8–9do not bring hastily to court. Otherwise, what will you do in the end when your neighbor puts you to shame?
- Job 23:7Then an upright man could reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
- Luke 13:24–28“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.
- Isa 55:6Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
- Ps 32:6Therefore let all the godly pray to You while You may be found. Surely when great waters rise, they will not come near.
- Prov 6:1–5My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge with a stranger,
- Ps 50:22Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
- Luke 14:31–32Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
- Matt 18:30But he refused. Instead, he went and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay his debt.
- Heb 3:7–13Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice,
- Job 22:21Reconcile now and be at peace with Him; thereby good will come to you.
- 1 Sam 25:18–35Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five butchered sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys
- Gen 32:3–28Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
- 2 Cor 6:2For He says: “In the time of favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the time of favor; now is the day of salvation!
- Job 36:17–18But now you are laden with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice have seized you.
- 1 Pet 3:19in whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison
- Rev 20:7When the thousand years are complete, Satan will be released from his prison,
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 12:58 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
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