Luke 17:32
What does Luke 17:32 mean?
A plain-English look at Luke 17:32 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Luke 17:32 means
Jesus compresses a whole cautionary tale into three words: remember Lot’s wife. She escaped the city but looked back longingly and was judged. The warning is about the heart’s attachments. It is possible to move outwardly while the soul still clings to what God is judging. Her fate teaches that divided devotion is deadly. In the moment of decision, hesitation rooted in love for the old life betrays unbelief. Jesus’ disciples must cultivate a forward-looking trust that counts God better than anything left behind, so that when called to act, they do not waver or nostalgically reach back.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Remember Lot’s wife.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Remember Lot’s wife.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Remember Lot’s wife.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Keep in mind Lot's wife.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862remember the wife of Lot.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Remember Lot's wife.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Remember the wife of Lot.
Context
This terse admonition follows the call to leave without retrieving goods (verse 31) and prepares for the next saying about losing and preserving life (verse 33). The sequence is intentional: do not turn back, recall Lot’s wife’s doom, and understand the paradox of true life. Then Jesus illustrates the coming separation with everyday scenes—two in a bed (verse 34), two grinding grain (verse 35), and another parallel (verse 36)—to emphasize that outward proximity does not determine one’s destiny when the day arrives.
v.31In that day, he that shall be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away: and let him that is in the field likewise not return back.
v.32This passage
v.33Whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it: but whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Hebrews 10:38
But my righteous one shall live by faith: And if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him.
- Genesis 19:17
And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the Plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
- 1 Corinthians 10:6
Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
- Genesis 19:26
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
- 2 Peter 2:18
For, uttering great swelling words of vanity, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by lasciviousness, those who are just escaping from them that live in error;
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