12:11a–b

If one of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out?: This is a rhetorical question. Jesus used this rhetorical question to emphasize that a person would certainly help a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath. He would not abandon it.

Here are some other ways to translate this emphasis:

• As a rhetorical question. You may then want to indicate the implied answer. For example:

If any of you has a sheep, and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, would you take hold of it and lift it out? ⌊Of course you would!⌋
-or-
Suppose you have a sheep. If it falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, ⌊do you leave it there⌋? ⌊Of course not!⌋ You grab it and lift it out.

• As a statement. For example:

If any of you has a sheep, and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, you would surely/certainly take hold of it and lift it out.

Translate this emphasis in a way that is natural in your language.

12:11a

If one of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath:

Here are some other ways to translate these clauses:

Suppose one of you has a sheep. If it falls into a pit on a day of worship (God’s Word)
-or-
If you had a sheep that fell into a ditch on the Sabbath (Contemporary English Version)

a sheep: The word sheep first occurs in 7:15b. It also occurs in 9:36c. You should translate it here as you did there.

pit: This word can refer to a hole that someone dug, or a hole that occurs naturally. The Greek does not specify which type of hole. What is important is that the word you use refer to a deep hole. If an animal like a sheep fell into such a hole, it could not get out by itself.

Here are some other ways to translate this word:

⌊deep⌋ hole
-or-
ditch (Contemporary English Version)

12:11b

take hold of it and lift it out: These two clauses refer to grasping the sheep and lifting it out of the pit. In some languages, it may be necessary to translate these two clauses using more than two verbs. In other languages, one verb is enough. For example:

reach in, grab it and pull it out

-or-

rescue it

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