Bible Strands
Luke 16:27
‘Then I beg you, father,’ he said, ‘send Lazarus to my father’s house,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The rich man in Hades speaks to Abraham, requesting that Lazarus be sent to his father’s house to warn his five living brothers. This plea follows immediately after Abraham declares the fixed chasm preventing any crossing between the two realms (Luke 16:26).
The words — ἐρωτῶ (erōtō) literally means "I implore" or "I beg," and πέμψῃς (pempsēs) is the aorist active subjunctive of "to send." The grammar frames the request as a direct, urgent command directed at Abraham.
The thread — The request to send a messenger to the living repeats in Luke 16:28, where the rich man specifies his five brothers need warning. This mirrors the broader scriptural pattern of God or His agents being dispatched to the living to prevent judgment, as seen in the sent prophets and angels throughout the Old and New Testaments.
Why it lands — It forces a reader to confront whether the living require extraordinary postmortem signs to believe, or if the revealed word is already sufficient. The text demands an honest evaluation of how one responds to available warning before the chasm becomes unbridgeable.
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
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: