Luke Chapter 15 verse 12 Holy Bible

ASV Luke 15:12

and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of `thy' substance that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
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BBE Luke 15:12

And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me that part of your property which will be mine. And he made division of his goods between them.
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DARBY Luke 15:12

and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give to me the share of the property that falls [to me]. And he divided to them what he was possessed of.
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KJV Luke 15:12

And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
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WBT Luke 15:12


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WEB Luke 15:12

The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of your property.' He divided his livelihood between them.
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YLT Luke 15:12

and the younger of them said to the father, Father, give me the portion of the substance falling to `me', and he divided to them the living.
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 12, 13. - And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together. The subject of the story this time is not derived from humble life. The family pictured is evidently one belonging to the wealthy class. There was money to be distributed; there were estates to be cultivated; means existed to defray the cost of feasting on a large scale; mention, too, is made incidentally of costly clothing and even of gems. Like other of the Lord's parable-teachings, the framework of the story was most likely founded upon fact. The family of the father and the two sons no doubt had been personally known to the Galilaean Teacher. This imperious demand of the younger seems strange to us. Such a division, however, in the lifetime of the father was not uncommon in the East. So Abraham in his lifetime bestowed the main body of his possessions on Isaac, having previously allotted portions to his other sons. There was, however, no Jewish law which required any such bestowal of property in the parent's lifetime. It was a free gift on the part of the father. But to the young son it was a hapless boon. "God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers;And flings the thing we have asked in our face,A gauntlet - with a gift in it."(E. B. Browning.) And took his journey into a far country. The youth, who probably in the Master's experience had suggested this part of the story, after receiving his share of money, started with unformed purposes of pleasure, perhaps of trade. The man, who was a Jew, left his home for one of the great world's marts, such as Carthage or Alexandria, Antioch or Rome. And there wasted his substance with riotous living. This is an extreme case. Few probably of the publicans and sinners whose hearts the Lord touched so deeply, and who are examples of the great class in every age to whom his gospel appeals so lovingly, had sinned so deeply as the young man of the story. Indecent haste to be free from the orderly quiet home-life, ingratitude, utter forgetfulness of all duty, the wildest profligacy, - these were the sins of the prodigal. It has been well remarked that the line runs out widely to embrace such a profligate, that every sinner may be encouraged to return to God and live. There is a grave reticence in sparing all details of the wicked life - a veil which the elder son with pitiless hand would snatch away (ver. 30).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12) The younger of them said to his father.--In its bearing on the individual life, the younger son represents the temper that is eager for independence, self-asserting, energetic; the elder that which is contemplative, devout, ceremonial, quiescent. As the latter pre-eminently characterises, as noticed above, the sons of Shem as distinguished from those of Japheth, the Semitic as distinct from the Aryan race, the younger son represents primarily the Jew who has yielded to non-Jewish tendencies; and on the wider scale of interpretation, stands for the whole Gentile world. The contrast between the Esau and Jacob types of character is reproduced (Genesis 25:27), only here the elder brother answers to Jacob and the younger to Esau, the variation indicating that the former is with all its short-comings the natural heir of the double portion of the first-born in the spiritual inheritance of God's kingdom. Israel remains within comparatively narrow limits of thought and habitation. Japheth is "enlarged" (Genesis 9:27) and goes forth with all his marvellous gifts of speech and thought, and fancy and invention.Divided unto them his living.--In the normal scale of distribution, the elder son would have as his portion two-thirds of the personal, and possibly also of the real, property, the younger the remainder. In the framework of the story, the father and the elder son become, as it were, tenants in common (Luke 15:31), the former still retaining the general direction of affairs. The state of things so described represents roughly the life of Israel under its theocracy, acknowledging God as its true King and Father.