Luke 15:4 (YLT)

Passage

`What man of you having a hundred sheep, and having lost one out of them, doth not leave behind the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go on after the lost one, till he may find it?

Nearby Context

Luke 15:2 and the Pharisees and the scribes were murmuring, saying--This one doth receive sinners, and doth eat with them.'

Luke 15:3 And he spake unto them this simile, saying,

Luke 15:4 `What man of you having a hundred sheep, and having lost one out of them, doth not leave behind the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go on after the lost one, till he may find it?

Luke 15:5 and having found, he doth lay <FI>it<Fi> on his shoulders rejoicing,

Luke 15:6 and having come to the house, he doth call together the friends and the neighbours, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I found my sheep--the lost one.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "sheep", "having", "hundred", "lost", "doth", "leave", and "behind". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "sheep" and "having", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "And he spake unto them this simile..." into verse 5's "and having found he doth lay FI...", so "sheep" and "having" belong inside that flow. In Luke context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "sheep" and "having" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.