1 tn Grk “joined himself to” (in this case an idiom for beginning to work for someone).
2 tn Grk “and he.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) and the personal pronoun have been translated by a relative pronoun to improve the English style.
3 sn To a Jew, being sent to the field to feed pigs would be an insult, since pigs were considered unclean animals (Lev 11:7).
4 tn Grk “but answering, he said.” This is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “but he answered.”
5 tn Or simply, “have served,” but in the emotional context of the older son’s outburst the translation given is closer to the point.
6 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “yet” to bring out the contrast indicated by the context.
7 sn You never gave me even a goat. The older son’s complaint was that the generous treatment of the younger son was not fair: “I can’t get even a little celebration with a basic food staple like a goat!”