Luke 11:12

Mace New Testament

or instead of an egg will he offer him a scorpion?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

King James Version (1611)
Or if he shall aske an egge, will he offer him a scorpion?

King James Version
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

English Standard Version
or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

New American Standard Bible
"Or he will even ask for an egg, and his father will give him a scorpion?

New Century Version
Or, if your children ask for an egg, would you give them a scorpion?

Amplified Bible
"Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?

Legacy Standard Bible
Or, if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

Berean Standard Bible
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

Contemporary English Version
Which one of you would give your child a scorpion if the child asked for an egg?

Complete Jewish Bible
or if he asked for an egg would give him a scorpion?

Darby Translation
or if also he shall ask an egg, shall give him a scorpion?

Easy-to-Read Version
Or, if he asked for an egg, would you give him a scorpion? Of course not!

Geneva Bible (1587)
Or if hee aske an egge, will hee giue him a scorpion?

George Lamsa Translation
And if he should ask him for an egg, why, would he hand him a scorpion?

Good News Translation
Or would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?

Lexham English Bible
Or also, if he will ask for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

Literal Translation
And if he should ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?

American Standard Version
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?

Bible in Basic English
Or for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

Hebrew Names Version
Or if he asks for an egg, he won't give him a scorpion, will he?

International Standard Version
Or if he asks for an egg, would he give him a scorpion?

Etheridge Translation
or if an egg he shall ask, will he a scorpion reach to him ?

Murdock Translation
Or, if he ask of him an egg, will he reach to him a scorpion?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Or yf he aske an egge, wyll he offer hym a scorpion?

English Revised Version
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?

World English Bible
Or if he asks for an egg, he won't give him a scorpion, will he?

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Or if he ask a fish, for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?

Weymouth's New Testament
or if he asks for an egg, will offer him a scorpion?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
or if he axe an eye, whether he schal a reche hym a scorpioun?

Update Bible Version
Or [if] he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?

Webster's Bible Translation
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

New English Translation
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

New King James Version
Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

New Living Translation
Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not!

New Life Bible
Or if he asked for an egg, would you give him a small animal with a sting of poison?

New Revised Standard
Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Or shall also ask, an egg, who will give him, a scorpion?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion?

Revised Standard Version
or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Or yf he axe an egge: wyll he offer him a scorpion?

Young's Literal Translation
and if he may ask an egg, will he present to him a scorpion?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Or yf he axe an egg, wyl he profer him a scorpion?

Simplified Cowboy Version
If your kid asks for eggs in his sandwich are you going to put a scorpion in there?

Contextual Overview

¹ One day Jesus had been praying in a certain place, and as soon as he had done, one of his disciples said to him, instruct us about prayer, as John the baptist instructed his disciples. ² he said therefore to them, when ye pray, say, "our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. thy kingdom come. thy will be done, on earth, as in heaven. ³ give us every day our portion of bread. ⁴ and forgive us our sins: since we forgive every one that has offended us. and leave us not under temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." ⁵ Then he said to them, suppose any of you should go to his friend at midnight; and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves: ⁶ for a friend of mine, a traveller, is come to my house, and I have nothing to entertain him with. ⁷ and he within should give this answer, don't trouble me now: the door is made fast, and my family are all in bed: I can't get up to supply you. ⁸ I tell you, tho' he will not rise, to supply him, out of friendship: yet out of regard to his importunity, he will rise, and lend him whatever he has occasion for. ⁹ I tell you likewise, ask, and it shall be given: seek, and ye shall find: knock, and the door shall be opened. ¹⁰ for every one that asketh, receives: he that seeketh, finds: and he that knocks has admittance.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

offer: Gr. give

a scorpion: Luke 10:19, Ezekiel 2:6, Revelation 9:10

Reciprocal: Psalms 103:13 - Like

Cross-References

Luke 3:36
son of Cainan, son of Arphaxad, son of Sem, son of Noe, son of Lamech, son of Mathusala,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion.... Of which there are three sorts; some are terrestrial, or land scorpions, scorpions of the earth, a kind of serpents, very venomous and mischievous, to whom the wicked Jews are compared, Ezekiel 2:6 and the locusts in Revelation 9:3 others are airy, or flying scorpions, a sort of fowl; and others are sea scorpions; of the fish kind: it is not easy to say which of them is here meant. There is an herb which is called עקרבנין n, "the scorpion": it leaves are like unto a scorpion, as the Jewish commentators say o. This is observed with the same view as the former. By it may be meant here, either the fish that is so called, since a fish is mentioned before; or rather, the land scorpion, which is of the serpent kind; this brings forth little worms, in the form of eggs, as p Pliny says: and it is said, that a scorpion put into an empty eggshell, has been used to be given to persons, whose death has been desired; which it bursting from, at once strikes and kills: but what father would do so to a child!

n Misn. Erubin, c. 2. sect. 6. o Maimon. & Bartonora in lb, p Lib. 11. c. 25.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this explained in the notes at Matthew 7:7-11.

Luke 11:12

“A scorpion” See the notes at Luke 10:19. Dr. Thomson (The Land and the Book, vol. i. p. 379) says: “There is no imaginable likeness between an egg and the ordinary black scorpion of this country, neither in color nor size, nor, when the tail is extended, in shape; but old writers speak of a “white” scorpion, and such a one, with the tail folded up, as in specimens of fossil trilobites, would not look unlike a small egg. Perhaps the contrast, however, refers only to the different properties of the egg and the scorpion, which is sufficiently emphatic.”

Pliny (“N. H.,” xi. 25) says that in Judea the scorpions are about the size of an egg, and not unlike one in shape.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Luke 11:12. Offer him a scorpion? — σκορπιον. The Greek etymologists derive the name from σκορπιζειν τον ιον, scattering the poison. But is there any similitude between a scorpion and an egg, that the one might be given and taken in place of the other? We know there is the utmost similitude between some fish, especially those of the eel kind, and serpents: and that there are stones exactly similar to bread in their appearance; from which we may conjecture that our Lord intended to convey the same idea of similitude between an egg and a scorpion. Perhaps the word scorpion here may be used for any kind of serpent that proceeds from an egg, or the word egg may be understood: the common snake is oviparous; it brings forth a number of eggs, out of which the young ones are hatched. If he asks an egg, will he, for one that might nourish him, give him that of a serpent. But Bochart states, that the body of a scorpion is like to an egg, especially if it be a white scorpion; which sort Nicander, AElian, Avicenna, and others, maintain to be the first species. Nor do scorpions differ much in size from an egg in Judea, if we may credit what the monks of Messua say, that there are about Jerusalem, and through all Syria, great scorpions, c. Hieroz. l. iv. cap. xxix. col. 641, edit. 1692. To this it may be said, there may be such a similitude, between a white scorpion and an egg, if the legs and tail of the former be taken away but how there can be a resemblance any other way, I know not. It is, however, a fact, that the alligator and crocodile come from eggs; two of those lie now before me, scarcely so large as the egg of the goose, longer, but not so thick. Now, suppose reference be made to one such egg, in which the young crocodile is hatched, and is ready to burst from its enclosure, would any father give such an egg to a hungry child? No. If the child asked an egg, he would not, instead of a proper one, give him that of the crocodile or the alligator, in which the young serpent was hatched, and from which it was just ready to be separated.