What Does Luke 14:13 Mean?
But when you make a feast, call the emptied, the maimed, the lame, the blind.
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
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:THE KEY
The feast’s hidden center is the reception of those who cannot repay the welcome.
THE MEANING
The table is opened toward people who arrive without the means to return what they receive. Their need does not make them an afterthought; they are named as guests the feast is meant to include.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Hospitality is worthwhile only when a guest can repay it.
THE ROOT
δοχήν
dochēn
GROWS FROM
δέχομαι
dechomai
Receive, take in, welcome.
The word translated “feast,” δοχή (dochē, reception or banquet), belongs to the family of δέχομαι (dechomai, receive or welcome). The table’s welcome reaches people who have no way to return it.
ALSO GROWS
dechomai: Receive, accept, welcome.
δέχομαι
This base verb shows the receiving already present in the word for a feast.
apodechomai: Receive favorably, welcome.
ἀποδέχομαι
This related verb makes the idea of welcome explicit.
πτωχούς
ptōchous
GROWS FROM
πτώσσω
ptōssō
Crouch or cower; the related word family describes beggarlike dependence.
“the emptied” in this verse is ptōchous. The word for the poor belongs to a family associated with crouching and begging, and πτωχεύω (ptōcheuō, live in poverty) describes poverty as a lived condition. Here, that dependence is part of the welcome: these guests have no power to repay the host.
ALSO GROWS
ptōchos: A poor person, especially one reduced to begging.
πτωχός
This is the singular form of the word used for the invited guests.
ptōcheuō: Be poor, live in poverty.
πτωχεύω
This related verb presents poverty as an ongoing condition rather than a label.
THE PATTERN
A gift’s fullest form reaches those who cannot return it.
You shall surely give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, for on account of this word the LORD your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you stretch your hand out to.Whoever lends to the LORD shows favor to the emptied one, and what his hands have done, he makes whole for him.But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return. And your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Highest, for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.THE THREAD
And you will be flourishing, for they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the standing up of the aligned.The next verse completes the invitation’s logic: these guests cannot repay the host. The recompense comes at the resurrection, beyond the exchange at the table.
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