Luke 17:26-32

17:26 Just ¹  as it was ²  in the days of Noah, ³  so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. 17:27 People ⁴  were eating, ⁵  they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage – right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then ⁶  the flood came and destroyed them all. ⁷  17:28 Likewise, just as it was ⁸  in the days of Lot, people ⁹  were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; 17:29 but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ¹⁰  17:30 It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 17:31 On that day, anyone who is on the roof, ¹¹  with his goods in the house, must not come down ¹²  to take them away, and likewise the person in the field must not turn back. 17:32 Remember Lot’s wife! ¹³ 

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¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

² tn Or “as it happened.”

³ sn Like the days of Noah, the time of the flood in Gen 6:5-8:22, the judgment will come as a surprise as people live their day to day lives.

⁴ tn Grk “They.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.

⁵ tn These verbs (“eating… drinking… marrying… being given in marriage”) are all progressive imperfects, describing action in progress at that time.

⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

⁷ sn Like that flood came and destroyed them all, the coming judgment associated with the Son of Man will condemn many.

⁸ tn Or “as it happened.”

⁹ tn Grk “they.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.

¹⁰ sn And destroyed them all. The coming of the Son of Man will be like the judgment on Sodom, one of the most immoral places of the OT (Gen 19:16-17; Deut 32:32-33; Isa 1:10).

¹¹ sn Most of the roofs in the NT were flat roofs made of pounded dirt, sometimes mixed with lime or stones, supported by heavy wooden beams. They generally had an easy means of access, either a sturdy wooden ladder or stone stairway, sometimes on the outside of the house.

¹² sn The swiftness and devastation of the judgment will require a swift escape. There is no time to come down from one’s roof and pick up anything from inside one’s home.

¹³ sn An allusion to Gen 19:26. The warning about Lot’s wife is not to look back and long to be where one used to be. The world is being judged, and the person who delays or turns back will be destroyed.