“What should we do?” asked some soldiers. John replied, “Don’t extort money or make false accusations. And be content with your pay.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Soldiers also asked him, saying, “What about us? What must we do?” He said to them, “Extort from no one by violence, neither accuse anyone wrongfully. Be content with your wages.”
- KJV And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.
- BSB Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” “Do not take money by force or false accusation,” he said. “Be content with your wages.”
- NKJV Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”
- NASB And soldiers also were questioning him, saying, “What are we to do, we as well?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone, nor harass anyone, and be content with your wages.”
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
John tells soldiers to stop extorting, never accuse falsely, and be content with their pay. Contentment and honesty are marks of true repentance.
Overview
Soldiers, who could easily abuse their power, are told to renounce intimidation, false accusation, and greed. Like the tax collectors, they are not told to leave their post but to serve justly within it. Contentment with one's wages strikes at the covetousness from which many sins spring, and it points toward the trust in God that the gospel produces.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Heb 13:5–6Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.”
- Exod 20:16“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
- Phil 4:11Not that I speak in respect to lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it.
- Exod 23:1“You shall not spread a false report. Don’t join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.
- 1 Tim 6:8–10But having food and clothing, we will be content with that.
- Lev 19:11“‘You shall not steal. “‘You shall not lie. “‘You shall not deceive one another.
- Rom 13:9–10For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
- Luke 19:8Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”
- Phil 2:15that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without defect in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world,
- Titus 2:3and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good;
- Rev 12:10I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.
- Matt 8:5When he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him,
- Acts 10:7When the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of those who waited on him continually.
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 3:14 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.