Luke Chapter 2 verse 29 Holy Bible
Now lettest thou thy servant depart, Lord, According to thy word, in peace;
read chapter 2 in ASV
Now you are letting your servant go in peace, O Lord, as you have said;
read chapter 2 in BBE
Lord, now thou lettest thy bondman go, according to thy word, in peace;
read chapter 2 in DARBY
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
read chapter 2 in KJV
read chapter 2 in WBT
"Now you are releasing your servant, Master, According to your word, in peace;
read chapter 2 in WEB
`Now Thou dost send away Thy servant, Lord, according to Thy word, in peace,
read chapter 2 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 29. - Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace. The beautiful little hymn of Simeon was no doubt preserved by the Virgin Mary and given to St. Luke. The Nunc dimittis has been used constantly in the liturgics of Christian Churches for fourteen centuries. The thought which runs through the hymn has been well put by Godet: "Simeon represents himself under the image of a sentinel, whom his master has placed in an elevated position, and charged to look for the appearance of a star, and then to announce it to the world. He sees this long-desired star; he proclaims its rising, and asks to be relieved of the post on the watch-tower he has occupied so long. In the same way, at the opening of AEschylus's 'Agamemnon,' when the sentinel, set to watch for the appearing of the fire that is to announce the taking of Troy, beholds at last the signal so impatiently expected, he sings at once both the victory of Greece and his own release."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(29) Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.--It is not expedient to alter the translation, but we have to remember that the central idea is that of the manumission of a slave. The word for Lord is not the usual Kyrios, but Despotes--a word but seldom used of God, and then almost always of the relation of a master and the slave who is such by inheritance or purchase (Acts 4:24; 2Peter 2:1; Jude Luke 2:4; Revelation 6:10, are the only other instances of its use). Simeon speaks as a slave who, through the night of long, weary years, has been standing on the watch-tower of expectation, and is at last set free by the rising of the Sun.According to thy word.--The reference is to the oracle which had been uttered within his soul, and was now being fulfilled.
