Behold, there are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last.”
Parallel translations
- KJV And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.
- BSB And indeed, some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.”
- NKJV And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”
- NASB And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
- NLT And note this: Some who seem least important now will be the greatest then, and some who are the greatest now will be least important then.”
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
Some who are last will be first and some first will be last. God's kingdom reverses human rankings and self-confident expectations.
Overview
This reversal warns the religiously privileged who assumed priority and encourages the humble and excluded who come to Christ. It summarizes the preceding teaching: outsiders enter while presumptuous insiders are shut out. The grace of the kingdom dethrones pride and exalts the lowly who believe.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Matt 19:30But many will be last who are first; and first who are last.
- Matt 20:16So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”
- Matt 21:28–31But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’
- Mark 10:31But many who are first will be last; and the last first.”
- Matt 3:9–10Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
- Matt 8:11–12I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 13:30 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.