10:31

But many who are first will be last: Many people who are rich or famous or powerful will not use those blessings for God’s kingdom in the present age. Therefore, they will receive little or no reward (10:30a) in eternity. They will have a position of low status in eternity. That is how many who are first will be last.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

many who are now first will be last (Good News Bible)
-or-
many who are high/great now will become low/humble
-or-
Many who have the highest place now will have the lowest place in the future. (New Century Version)

and the last will be first: Some words from the previous clause are implied but not repeated here. The complete clause would be:

Many people who are now last will be first in eternity.

Many people who have little earthly riches or fame or power use the little they have for God’s kingdom in the present age. Therefore they will have great reward (10:30a) and a position of high status in heaven. This is how many who are last will be first.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

…many who are now last will be first. (Good News Bible)
-or-
…many who are low/humble now will become high/great.
-or-
…many who have the lowest place now will have the highest place in the future. (New Century Version)

© 2008 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.