Bible Strands
Luke 15:19
I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The younger son speaks this line to his father while rehearsing his return, placed directly between his vow to confess in Luke 15:18 and the father's compassionate response in Luke 15:20.
The words — The text highlights οὐκέτι (ouketi), meaning "no longer," and ἄξιος (axios), meaning "worthy," to state the speaker's complete loss of familial standing. It also uses ποιήσόν με (poiēson me), "make me," to request formal demotion to a hired servant's status.
The thread — This declaration of unworthiness and desire for lowly service runs through Job 42:6, Psalm 84:10, and James 4:8.
Why it lands — The verse first states that sin destroys any claim to inheritance, then requires the reader to abandon self-justification and approach reconciliation with zero entitlement.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
Cross-references
- Job 42:6 Therefore I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.”
- Psalms 84:10 For better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
- James 4:8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- 1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.
- Genesis 32:10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.
- Joshua 9:24 The Gibeonites answered, “Your servants were told clearly that the LORD your God had commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land and wipe out all its inhabitants before you. So we greatly feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we have done this.
- Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”
- Luke 7:6 So Jesus went with them. But when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends with the message: “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy to have You come under my roof.
- 1 Corinthians 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles and am unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
- Matthew 15:26 But Jesus replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”