What Does Luke 18:6 Mean?
And the Lord said, Hear what the misaligned judge says.
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
And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.THE KEY
Jesus tells you to listen to the unjust judge because even his self-serving answer reveals what persistent appeal can move.
THE MEANING
This line directs your attention to words spoken from a place of injustice. The judge’s answer shows that repeated appeal can move even a self-interested authority; the next line turns that admission toward God’s response to those who cry out to him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that an appeal is futile unless the one hearing it is already compassionate: even this unjust judge responds to persistent appeal.
THE ROOT
ἀκούσατε
akousate
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
akou-
Hear, listen, attend to what is said.
“Hear” in this verse is akousate. The command uses ἀκούω (akouō), a word for hearing and listening: Jesus asks you to register the judge’s reasoning, not just the sound of his words. Its word family links hearing with heeding, so the line calls for attention to what the answer reveals.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: hearing; a report or message
ἀκοή
The shared stem connects receiving words with the report carried by those words.
hypakouō: listen to; heed or obey
ὑπακούω
This compound shows how hearing can extend into heeding, sharpening the force of Jesus’ command to attend.
ἀδικίας
adikias
GROWS FROM
δικ-
dik-
Justice or what is right; with the negative prefix ἀ- (a-), injustice or what is not right.
“misaligned” in this verse is adikias. The Greek describes him as a judge of injustice, making the failure of justice part of his identity in the parable. The justice word family also includes language of being just or aligned, so the contrast with God’s just response is already taking shape.
ALSO GROWS
dikē: justice; what is right
δίκη
This is the justice at the heart of the word family, absent from the judge’s character.
dikaiosynē: justice; alignment with what is right
δικαιοσύνη
Its shared stem gives the contrast a shape: the judge is marked by injustice, while justice describes what is right and aligned.
THE PATTERN
Persistent appeal keeps a need before a closed authority until even reluctance yields a response.
I say to you, though he does not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his shamelessness he rises and gives him as many as he needs.And he said, Let me go, for the dawn is rising. And Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me.Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your trust. Let it be for you as you will. And her daughter was healed from that very hour.THE THREAD
And he said, Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.Both verses use ἀκούω (akouō), hear or listen. Mark’s repeated call to hear makes the force of Luke’s command clearer: attend closely to the words, because they disclose more than the speaker intends.
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