What Does Luke 21:34 Mean in the King James?
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
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
Even the ordinary cares of life can weigh your heart down until the day arrives before you recognize it.
THE MEANING
Your heart can grow heavy under excess, drunkenness, and the anxieties of this life, leaving you unaware when the day comes. What fills your attention can weigh down the inner center that notices what is arriving.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that only obvious excess can dull your readiness; this verse names life’s cares alongside surfeiting and drunkenness as weights on the heart.
THE ROOT
βαρηθῶσιν
barēthōsin
GROWS FROM
βαρέω
baréō
To weigh down or burden; in this form, to become weighed down.
“overcharged” in this verse is barēthōsin. The Greek pictures the heart growing heavy under a load. Surfeiting, drunkenness, and life’s cares converge as different weights that can dull alertness.
ALSO GROWS
báros: Weight or burden.
βάρος
The shared word family makes the heart’s overloading concrete: what it carries can become a burden.
barýs: Heavy or weighty.
βαρύς
This adjective makes clear that being overcharged is pictured as becoming heavy, not merely having too much to do.
μερίμναις
merímnais
GROWS FROM
μεριμνα-
merimna-
Care or anxious concern.
“cares” in this verse is merímnais. The word names concern as something that occupies the inner life. Here it stands beside intoxication and excess as another condition that can leave the heart unready.
ALSO GROWS
mérimna: Care, anxiety, or concern.
μέριμνα
This singular form appears in Matthew’s parable of the thorns, where care chokes what has been heard.
merimnáō: To be anxious or concerned.
μεριμνάω
The related verb shows that the noun names an active state of being occupied with concern.
καρδίας
kardías
GROWS FROM
καρδία
kardía
The heart as the inner center of thought, intention, and feeling.
“hearts” in this verse is kardías. In this Greek word, the heart is more than emotion: it is the inner center that perceives and intends. The warning is that this whole center can become heavy.
ALSO GROWS
kardiognṓstēs: One who knows hearts.
καρδιογνώστης
This compound uses the same heart word for the inner life that can be known.
sklērokardía: Hardness of heart.
σκληροκαρδία
This compound shows how καρδία can describe the condition of the inner center, not only a feeling.
THE PATTERN
When the inner life is dulled, a decisive moment can arrive before it is recognized.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.THE THREAD
He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.Matthew uses the same Greek word for care, μέριμνα (mérimna), that appears here in Luke. The shared root shows care not only weighing the heart down, but also crowding what it has heard.
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