16:21a
longing to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table: The poor man very much wanted to eat some of the food scraps that were thrown away after the rich man ate. The text does not say whether he ever received any of these leftover scraps.
the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates fairly literally as the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table probably refers to:
(a) the chunks of bread on which people wiped their hands—they then threw this bread under the table;
(b) the food that remained after the rich man and his guests had finished eating.
Servants probably gathered both kinds of food scraps along with bits of food that had fallen to the floor and threw them away. In your translation you may use an expression that refers to any of these kinds of food scraps. For example:
the small pieces of food that fell from the rich man’s table (New Century Version)
-or-
scraps from the rich man’s table (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
food that they/servants threw away after the rich man finished eating
Be careful not to imply that Lazarus was lying under or near the table ready to eat the bits of food that fell. He was outside by the gate that led into the property.
16:21b
Even the dogs came and licked his sores: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Even in this context introduces another detail that describes the poor man’s miserable condition. He was not only hungry and covered with sores. He was also not able to drive away the dogs that came to lick the sores. Other ways to introduce this detail are:
In addition, the dogs came… (NET Bible)
-or-
These were not his only difficulties, because even the dogs that came to where he was…
the dogs: The phrase the dogs refers to the wild street dogs that lived in ancient Palestine. They were not tame dogs, and people feared and disliked them.
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