Bible Strands
Luke 6:12
In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the night in prayer to God.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports Jesus' action in the interval between the Pharisees' plot (6:11) and the selection of the twelve (6:13). No one is speaking; the verse is a narrative hinge.
The words — ἐξελθεῖν (exelthein), "to go out," carries the sense of deliberate departure from a place, the same verb family as Mark 1:35 where Jesus goes out to a solitary place to pray.
The thread — Mark 1:35 and Mark 6:46 both place Jesus in a solitary place or on a mountain to pray; Hebrews 5:7 intensifies the picture with "loud cries and tears."
Why it lands — The selection of the twelve (6:13) follows this night, not precedes it; the verse asks the reader to notice that the most consequential decision in the passage was preceded by extended, deliberate prayer rather than impulse.
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 it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
Cross-references
- Mark 6:46 After bidding them farewell, He went up on the mountain to pray.
- Hebrews 5:7 During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.
- Mark 1:35 Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went out to a solitary place to pray.
- Mark 14:34 Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”
- Matthew 14:23 After He had dismissed them, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone,
- Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
- Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
- Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful,
- Psalms 22:2 I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest.
- Psalms 109:3 They surround me with hateful words and attack me without cause.