Luke 2:23

2:23 (just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male¹ will be set apart to the Lord”²),

Luke 13:24

13:24 “Exert every effort³ to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.

Luke 19:43

19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build⁴ an embankment⁵ against you and surround you and close in on you from every side.

Luke 21:37

21:37 So⁶ every day Jesus⁷ was teaching in the temple courts,⁸ but at night he went and stayed⁹ on the Mount of Olives.¹⁰

¹tn Grk “every male that opens the womb” (an idiom for the firstborn male).

²sn An allusion to Exod 13:2, 12, 15.

³tn Or “Make every effort” (L&N 68.74; cf. NIV); “Do your best” (TEV); “Work hard” (NLT); Grk “Struggle.” The idea is to exert one’s maximum effort (cf. BDAG 17 s.v. ἀγωνίζομαι 2.b, “strain every nerve to enter”) because of the supreme importance of attaining entry into the kingdom of God.

⁴sn Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The details of the siege have led some to see Luke writing this after Jerusalem’s fall, but the language of the verse is like God’s exilic judgment for covenant unfaithfulness (Hab 2:8; Jer 6:6, 14; 8:13-22; 9:1; Ezek 4:2; 26:8; Isa 29:1-4). Specific details are lacking and the procedures described (build an embankment against you) were standard Roman military tactics.

⁵sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.

⁶tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” since vv. 37-38 serve as something of a summary or transition from the discourse preceding to the passion narrative that follows.

⁷tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸tn Grk “in the temple.”

⁹tn Grk “and spent the night,” but this is redundant because of the previous use of the word “night.”

¹⁰tn Grk “at the mountain called ‘of Olives.’”

sn See the note on the phrase Mount of Olives in 19:29.