And they said, “The Lord has need of him.”
Parallel translations
- WEB They said, “The Lord needs it.”
- KJV And they said, The Lord hath need of him.
- BSB “The Lord needs it,” they answered.
- NASB They said, “The Lord has need of it.”
- NLT And the disciples simply replied, “The Lord needs it.”
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
The disciples answer simply, "The Lord needs it," and the owners comply. Christ's word commands willing obedience.
Overview
The owners release the colt at the disciples' brief reply, just as Jesus had said. The episode displays both Jesus's authority and the readiness of others to serve his purpose. It quietly testifies that the Lord's claim is honored even by strangers.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Zech 9:9Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
- John 10:35If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken),
- 2 Cor 8:9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.
- John 12:16His disciples didn’t understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him, and that they had done these things to him.
Resources, by level
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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 19:34 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.