Luke Chapter 12 verse 49 Holy Bible

ASV Luke 12:49

I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what do I desire, if it is already kindled?
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BBE Luke 12:49

I came to send a fire on the earth, and it may even now have been lighted.
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DARBY Luke 12:49

I have come to cast a fire on the earth; and what will I if already it has been kindled?
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KJV Luke 12:49

I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?
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WBT Luke 12:49


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WEB Luke 12:49

"I came to throw fire on the earth. I wish it were already kindled.
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YLT Luke 12:49

`Fire I came to cast to the earth, and what will I if already it was kindled?
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Luke 12 : 49 Bible Verse Songs

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 49. - I am come to send fire on the earth. It is still the same train of thought that the Master pursues - a train which had been only slightly diverted by Peter's question. The text, so to speak, of the whole discourse was "the strange attraction which riches possess for men, and the palsying effect which this attraction, when yielded to, exercises over the whole life." The Master's argument was as follows: "Beware of covetousness; let your attachment to earthly possessions sit very lightly on you all; and as for you, my disciples, do you have nothing to do with these perishable goods." And here, with an abrupt solemnity, probably the voice changing here, and ringing with an awful emotion, he enforces his charge to the disciples with the words, "I am come to send fire on the earth." "My stern, sad work is to inaugurate a mighty struggle, to cast a firebrand on the earth. Lo, my presence will stir up men - you will see this in a way none now dream of; a vast convulsion will rend this people asunder. In the coming days of war and tumult, what have you, my disciples, who will be in the forefront of this movement, - what have you to do with earthly goods? Toss them away from you as useless baggage. The pioneers of the army of the future, surely they must be unencumbered in the war, which is about to break out; for remember, 'I am come to send fire on the earth.'" And what will I, if it be already kindled? better rendered, how I would that it had been already kindled! That is to say, "How I wish that this fire were already burning!" (so Olshausen, De Wette, Bleek, and Farrar). Through all the woe, however, the Redeemer could see, shining as it were through a dark cloud, the unspeakable glory and blessedness of his work. But this fire could not be kindled into a flame until something had happened. The cross must be endured by him; till then his work was not finished; and in his pure human nature - it is with stammering tongue and trembling pen we speak or write here - he felt, we believe, the bitter stinging pain of dread expectation of what was coming. With this onlook he was weighed down, we know, at times; witness especially the Gethsemane agony. He goes on to say -

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(49) I am come to send fire on the earth.--There is a strange unique abruptness in the utterance. We are compelled to assume a pause, a moment's thought, as in one whose gaze looks out into the future, and who at once feels its terrors and yet accepts them. The fire which He came to send is the fire of judgment which shall burn up the chaff (see Note on Matthew 3:12), the baptism of fire which shall purify and cleanse as well as destroy. The Son of Man knew that this, with all its terrors, was what He came to work. If the fire was already kindled, if judgment was already passed upon the unfaithful stewards and the servants who knew their Lord's will and did it not, why should He wish to check it? What other wish or will was right for Him than that it should complete what it had begun, even though it brought not peace, but a sword--not union, but division?