18:30a

There is a contrast here. The contrast is between the way that the king treated the first servant, and the way that the first servant treated the second servant. The Berean Standard Bible and some English versions indicate this contrast with the conjunction “But.” For example:

But (New International Version)

Other English versions let the context suggest the connection. You should do what is most natural in your language.

But he refused: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible translates as But he refused is more literally “He was not willing” (as in the New American Standard Bible). The first servant was not willing to do what the second servant begged him to do.

In some languages, it may be more natural to make explicit the thing that was refused. For example:

he refused ⌊the request⌋
-or-
the first servant refused to be patient (New Century Version)
-or-
he was not willing ⌊to wait⌋

18:30b

Instead: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible here translates as Instead occurs when a pair of clauses is related, and the first clause contains a negative term (“refused,” in 18:30a ) or the word “not.” (In this case, 18:30a is the first clause. It is literally “He was not willing.”)

Here are some other ways to introduce this clause:

then (New Revised Standard Version)

In some languages, no conjunction is necessary here. This is what the New Century Version does. For example:

30aBut the first servant refused to be patient. 30bHe threw the other servant into prison until he could pay everything he owed.

he went and had the man thrown into prison: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as thrown is more literally “throw.” It refers to an action with force.

The first servant did not throw the second one into prison himself. Rather, he went to the authorities, told them what happened, and asked them to throw him in prison/jail.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

he had him thrown into prison (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
he went ⌊and asked the authorities⌋ to throw him in prison/jail

18:30c

until he could pay his debt: In that time, someone with a debt that he could not pay, or refused to pay, could be put in prison. It was expected that his family or friends would then pay off the debt in order to release him.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

until someone paid off the debt
-or-
until the day that he reimbursed the money

-or-

for as long as he had not paid all the money that he owed

© 2023 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.