Luke 17:27

27 Everybody kept on eating and drinking, and men and women married, up to the very day Noah went into the boat and the flood came and killed them all. 1

Luke 17:27 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 17:27

They did eat, they drank
That is, the inhabitants of the old world ate and drank, not merely in a common way, with moderation, and for the support and comfort of life, which is not blameworthy, nor inconsistent with religious exercises; but they lived in an extravagant and luxurious manner; they indulged their sensual appetites, and put away the evil day far from them, that Noah told them of:

they married wives, they were given in marriage;
not as should have been done by professors of religion among themselves; but the sons of God, or professors of the true religion, the posterity of Seth took them wives of the daughters of men, of the wicked, of the seed of Cain; and very likely gave their daughters in marriage to the sons of men; see ( Genesis 6:2 Genesis 6:4 ) and so they went on in a secure manner, notwithstanding all the remonstrances, warnings, and threatenings of God, by his servant:

until the day that Noe entered into the ark;
which he had built by divine direction, for the saving of himself and family, and the creatures that were with him, from the waters of the flood; and this was in the six hundredth year of his life, in the second month, the month of October, and in the seventeenth day of that month; ( Genesis 7:11 Genesis 7:13 )

and the flood came and destroyed them all;
all the inhabitants of the earth, every living substance, men, cattle, creeping things, and fowls of the heaven; all but Noah, and his wife, and his three sons, and their wives, and the creatures that were with him in the ark: the flood came not of itself, or by chance, or through the influence, or by the concurrence of second causes merely; though these were used, ordered, and directed by the first cause of all things; but it came by the power of God, according to his will; he brought it on the world of the ungodly; see ( 2 Peter 2:5 ) The mode of expression is Jewish; it is said of Cain, who is supposed by the Jews to have lived till the flood, (wpjvw lwbmab) , "the flood came", and washed him away F7.


FOOTNOTES:

F7 Bereshit Rabba, sect. 32. fol. 27. 2. & Shemot Rabba, sect. 31. fol. 134. 4.

Luke 17:27 In-Context

25 But first he must suffer much and be rejected by the people of this day.
26 As it was in the time of Noah so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man.
27 Everybody kept on eating and drinking, and men and women married, up to the very day Noah went into the boat and the flood came and killed them all.
28 It will be as it was in the time of Lot. Everybody kept on eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
29 On the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and killed them all.

Cross References 1

  • 1. 17.27Genesis 7.6-24.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.