What Does Luke 13:31 Mean?
In that very hour some of the separated ones came to him, saying, "Go out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill you."
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee.THE KEY
The verse names what Herod wants, then shows that desire arriving as an order for Jesus to change course.
THE MEANING
Here the danger and the direction arrive together: Herod wants Jesus dead, and the Pharisees tell him to leave. The Greek says what Herod wants, not that the killing has already happened; desire is not the same as inevitability. When a threat reaches you now, its claim about danger and its demand about your next move remain distinct.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A powerful person’s desire to harm me means the path is already decided, and I must follow the route the warning gives me.
THE ROOT
θέλει
thelei
GROWS FROM
θέλω
thelō
Want, wish, or be willing; in this sentence, intend or desire.
“wants to kill you” in this verse is thelei. The Greek verb describes what Herod wants: it gives the threat the shape of an intention. The sentence names real danger without saying that the killing has happened or that it is inevitable.
ALSO GROWS
thelēma: Will, desire, or what is wanted.
θέλημα
This noun from the same word family keeps the focus on a desire or intention.
ethelō: Be willing or wish.
ἐθέλω
This related form also names willingness or desire, reinforcing the distinction between wanting an outcome and accomplishing it.
πορεύου
poreuou
GROWS FROM
πορεύομαι
poreuomai
Go, proceed, or travel onward.
“depart from here” in this verse is poreuou. “Depart” is an order about movement: the warning comes with a proposed direction. The same verb family returns in Jesus’s reply as “Go ye,” where going carries a message back to Herod.
ALSO GROWS
poreia: A journey or course.
πορεία
The journey sense makes the command to depart concrete: it directs someone onto a course.
ekporeuomai: Go out or come forth.
ἐκπορεύομαι
This compound adds “out” to the same going family, echoing the verse’s repeated pressure to leave.
THE PATTERN
Threats can press for a change of course without settling what the threatened person will do.
The LORD is at my side; I do not fear. What can humankind do to me?But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is aligned before the face of God to hear and respond to you rather than to God, judge it."THE THREAD
And he said to them, "Go and say to that fox, Look, I throw out demons and I finish healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I am brought to my end."The “Go ye” in Jesus’s reply uses the same Greek verb family, πορεύομαι (poreuomai), meaning “go” or “proceed,” as “depart” here. Movement remains in the sentence, but now it carries a message back to Herod; the threat has not chosen the direction for him.
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