Luke 17:27
What does Luke 17:27 mean?
A plain-English look at Luke 17:27 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Luke 17:27 means
In Noah’s time, people ate, drank, married, and were given in marriage—ordinary activities that continued right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. The lesson is not to condemn normal life but to warn against complacency that ignores God’s word. Noah prepared in obedience while others dismissed the message. When judgment fell, it was comprehensive and inescapable. Jesus uses this to urge readiness: heed God’s warnings, align life with His purposes, and do not let routine pleasures lull the soul into false security. Divine patience does not mean indifference; eventual reckoning is certain.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
KJV
King James Version · 1611They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949They were feasting and taking wives and getting married, till the day of the overflowing of the waters, when Noah went into the ark, and they all came to destruction.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were given in marriage, till the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the deluge came, and destroyed all;
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752They did eat and drink, they married wives and were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890they ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all [of them];
Context
This detail follows the initial comparison to Noah’s days (verse 26) and emphasizes the suddenness and totality of judgment after a period of normalcy. The pattern will be echoed with Lot’s experience (verses 28–29) and then applied to the revealing of the Son of man (verse 30). The narrative momentum is toward urgency—do not cling to the present world when the decisive day comes (verse 31), and remember Lot’s wife as a warning (verse 32).
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Luke 12:19
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry.
- Deuteronomy 8:12
lest, when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;
- Isaiah 21:4
My heart fluttereth, horror hath affrighted me; the twilight that I desired hath been turned into trembling unto me.
- Isaiah 22:12
And in that day did the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
- Luke 16:19
Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day:
- Deuteronomy 6:10
And it shall be, when Jehovah thy God shall bring thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee, great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not,
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