What Does Luke 16:21 Mean in the King James?
And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse places hunger at the edge of abundance: what falls from a table is still not the same as being fed.
THE MEANING
Food falls from a rich man’s table while another person longs merely to be filled. The dogs reach the sores on his body, making his exposure as visible as his hunger.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that living beside plenty means your need is being met; proximity to provision can coexist with hunger.
THE ROOT
χορτασθῆναι
chortasthēnai
GROWS FROM
χορτ-
chort-
Grass or fodder; the verb develops the sense of feeding until satisfied.
The verb grows from χόρτος (chortos), meaning grass or fodder: to be fed carries the image of receiving what fills. The ache here is for that fullness, but the only food in view is what falls from someone else’s table.
ALSO GROWS
chortos: Grass, fodder, or herbage.
χόρτος
This concrete root meaning makes feeding an act of receiving nourishment, not simply being near food.
chortasma: Food or fodder.
χόρτασμα
The related noun keeps the focus on nourishment received, sharpening the gap between the food that falls and the person who still longs to be filled.
THE PATTERN
Need beside visible provision exposes whether nourishment reaches the person who lacks it.
But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?THE THREAD
Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.The verb translated “fed” here is the same Greek verb rendered “filled” in Luke 6:21. The echo lets Lazarus’s longing sound in the text’s own language: hunger is named alongside the possibility of fullness.
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