Ἡ δὲ ἡμέρα ἤρξατο κλίνειν· προσελθόντες δὲ οἱ δώδεκα εἶπαν αὐτῷ, Ἀπόλυσον τὸν ὄχλον, ἵνα πορευθέντες εἰς τὰς κύκλῳ κώμας καὶ ἀγροὺς καταλύσωσιν καὶ εὕρωσιν ἐπισιτισμόν, ὅτι ὧδε ἐν ἐρήμῳ τόπῳ ἐσμέν.
12The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside to lodge and get provisions, for we are here in a deserted place.”
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “village” or “town” in English is translated in Noongar as karlamaya or “fire (used for “home“) + houses” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
In Elhomwe it is typically translated as “place.” “Here in Malawi, villages very small, so changed to ‘places,’ since not sure whether biblical reference just to small villages or also to bigger towns. (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Image taken from Chinese Christian Posters . For more information on the “Ars Sacra Pekinensis” school of art, see this article , for other artworks of that school in TIPs, see here.
Following is a 1973 painting of the JESUS MAFA project, a response to New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings:
Jesus stands in the center inspecting the baskets of leftover food the disciples are bringing to him. All around him are content crowds of people who have just been fed. The miracle of this story rests in Jesus’ taking the resources people shared and breaking (read dividing) them among all in attendance that day. Christians are called to live and follow Christ in his example—this means sharing what we have with those around us, especially those in need. In this world, there is plenty to go around. Rather than projecting a gospel of prosperity, we should radiate a gospel of giving.
From Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Image retrieved March 23, 2026. Original source: librairie-emmanuel.fr.
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including Jesus).
Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 9:12:
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-moto (みもと) referring to the location (of God) in the referenced verses.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-kao (御顔) or “face (of God)” in the referenced verses.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Exegesis:
hē de hēmera ērxato klinein ‘then the day began to decline.’ A co-ordinate clause is employed here instead of the more common sub-ordinate, temporal clause, because it is more vivid.
klinō here intransitive, ‘to decline,’ ‘to be far spent.’
apoluson ton ochlon ‘dismiss the crowd,’ cf. on 2.29. ton ochlon takes up hoi ochloi in v. 11. To this group refers also the subject of katalusōsin (plural).
hina poreuthentes eis tas kuklō kōmas kai agrous katalusōsin ‘that they, after going to the villages and farms around, find lodging.’ For agrous cf. on 8.34. kuklō.
kataluō (also 19.7) ‘to halt,’ ‘to rest,’ ‘to find lodging.’
kai heurōsin episitismon ‘and find provisions.’
episitismos ‘provisions,’ ‘food,’ a military term used also in the case of travellers.
hoti hōde en erēmō topō esmen ‘for here we are in a lonely place.’
Translation:
The day began to wear away may be variously expressed, cf. e.g. ‘the time-of-day (was) close-to evening’ (Bahasa Indonesia); and cf. on “the day is far spent” in 24.29.
Send the crowd away, to go into, or, ‘give the crowd leave that they may go into,’ ‘urge the crowd to go into’; renderings such as ‘dismiss the crowd, and let them go into,’ or simply, “send the crowd away to” (An American Translation), ‘order the crowd to go to’ (Balinese) are acceptable too, unless they would suggest a rejection or getting rid of.
Villages and country refers to local units of medium and smallest size; for the latter cf. on 8.34.
Round about (going with the two preceding nouns), or, ‘that are nearby’ (Tae,’ Sundanese), ‘in the neighbourhood’ (Nieuwe Vertaling), ‘to-the-left-and-right-from here’ (Javanese).
To lodge and get provisions, or, ‘to get a place to lodge and to get something-to-eat’ (Sundanese), ‘to seek/ask lodging (or, place-to-pass-the-night, Tae’) and food,’ “to find food and shelter” (An American Translation, changing the order in accordance with the receptor language idiom). A syntactic shift sometimes useful is found in Batak Toba, .’.. to go to lodge in the villages and country to get something-to-eat.’
Lonely place, see on 4.42.
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.
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