Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any,
Parallel translations
- WEB A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any,
- KJV And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
- BSB including a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all her money on physicians, but no one was able to heal her.
- NASB And a woman who had suffered a chronic flow of blood for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone,
- NLT A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure.
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
A woman with a twelve-year flow of blood, beyond all medical help, approaches Jesus. Her case is humanly hopeless.
Overview
Luke introduces a woman whose long illness left her ritually unclean, isolated, and bankrupt after futile treatments. Her condition made her an outcast under the law. Her desperate, faith-filled approach to Jesus contrasts with the helplessness of every other remedy.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Mark 5:25–26A certain woman, who had an issue of blood for twelve years,
- Matt 9:20–22Behold, a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years came behind him, and touched the fringe of his garment;
- Lev 15:25–33“‘If a woman has a discharge of her blood many days not in the time of her period, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her period; all the days of the discharge of her uncleanness shall be as in the days of her period: she is unclean.
- Luke 13:16Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound eighteen long years, be freed from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”
- Mark 9:21–22He asked his father, “How long has it been since this has come to him?” He said, “From childhood.
- 2 Chr 16:12In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet. His disease was exceedingly great: yet in his disease he didn’t seek Yahweh, but just the physicians.
- Job 13:4But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.
- Isa 55:1–3“Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
- Luke 13:11Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent over, and could in no way straighten herself up.
- John 9:1As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.
- Luke 8:27When Jesus stepped ashore, a certain man out of the city who had demons for a long time met him. He wore no clothes, and didn’t live in a house, but in the tombs.
- Isa 2:22Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?
- John 9:21but how he now sees, we don’t know; or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.”
- Ps 108:12Give us help against the enemy, for the help of man is vain.
- Acts 4:22For the man on whom this miracle of healing was performed was more than forty years old.
- John 5:5–6A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
- Mark 9:18and wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and wastes away. I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they weren’t able.”
- Acts 3:2A certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask gifts for the needy of those who entered into the temple.
- Acts 14:8–10At Lystra a certain man sat, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked.
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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 8:43 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.