Lukas 11:9-11

11:9 “So ¹  I tell you: Ask, ²  and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door ³  will be opened for you. 11:10 For everyone who asks ⁴  receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door ⁵  will be opened. 11:11 What father among you, if your ⁶  son asks for ⁷  a fish, will give him a snake ⁸  instead of a fish?

[11:9]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai, from καγώ [kagw]) has been translated as “so” to indicate the conclusion drawn from the preceding parable.

[11:9]  ² sn The three present imperatives in this verse (Ask…seek…knock) are probably intended to call for a repeated or continual approach before God.

[11:9]  ³ tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:10]  ⁴ sn The actions of asking, seeking, and knocking are repeated here from v. 9 with the encouragement that God does respond.

[11:10]  ⁵ tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:11]  ⁶ tn Grk “the”; in context the article is used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[11:11]  ⁷ tc Most mss (א A C D L W Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat sy^c,p,h bo) have “bread, does not give him a stone instead, or” before “a fish”; the longer reading, however, looks like a harmonization to Matt 7:9. The shorter reading is thus preferred, attested by Ì^45,75 B 1241 pc sy^s sa.

[11:11]  ⁸ sn The snake probably refers to a water snake.