Luke 4:18 - Plain English Version

¹⁸ “God’s spirit came into me. He picked me to tell good news to poor people. He sent me to tell prisoners, ‘You will go free.’ And he sent me to tell blind people, ‘You will see.’ And he sent me to people that are in big trouble, to take their trouble away.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

¹⁸ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised,

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

¹⁸ The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity],

American Standard Version (1901)

¹⁸ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised,

Common English Bible

¹⁸ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed,

Catholic Public Domain Version

¹⁸ "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because of this, he has anointed me. He has sent me to evangelize the poor, to heal the contrite of heart,

Luke 4:18 Cross References

Genesis 3:15

The woman’s kids will hate you, and so will all their kids, and all the people that will be born later on. People will always be your enemies. And Snake, your kids will hate the woman’s kids, and so will all the snake mob that will be born later on. You snake mob will always be the people’s enemies. They will hit your heads, and you will bite their feet.”

Psalm 34:18

Some people are really sad and feel hurt inside. God stays really close to those people. And some people think nothing good will happen to them. God helps those people too.

Matthew 11:5

Some people were blind, but now they can see. Some people were crippled, but now they can walk. Some people had a bad skin sickness, but now their skin is good again. Some people were deaf, but now they can hear. Some people were dead, but now they are alive again. And tell John that you heard us telling the good news to poor people.

Matthew 12:18

“This is the man that God picked to work for himself. God loves him, and he makes God very happy. God will put his spirit in him, and he will tell the people in other nations that God is right and fair.

Matthew 12:20

Some people are weak, like a bit of grass that is almost broken, and some people can’t help themselves, like a candle wick that has almost gone out. He will not forget those people, but he will help them to get strong. He will keep on being right and fair to everyone, until people are fair to each other too.

Matthew 4:16

The people there don’t know much about God. It is like they are in the dark, but they will see a big bright light. They thought they were going to die, but a light will start to shine for them.”

Matthew 5:3

Jesus said, “Some people know that they need God very much. All right, God will take those people into his family, and they will be really happy.

Luke 4:17

A helper there gave him the part that Isaiah wrote. Isaiah was a man that told everyone God’s messages, a long time ago. Jesus opened the book to the right place, and he read these words.

John 12:46

I came to the world to tell people the true message, so that they can know the true message and believe in me. It’s like people were in the dark, but I came to be a light for them.

John 3:34

You see, Jesus only says God’s words. God sent him and gave him the full power of his Holy Spirit.

Acts 10:38

Then God gave Jesus the Holy Spirit, and he gave him power to do his special work. Jesus was from a town called Nazareth, and he went everywhere doing good things. Some people were sick, and the devil, the boss over the bad spirits, was giving them big trouble. But Jesus made them all better. You see, God was with him.

Acts 26:18

and you will tell them the true message about me. It will be like you will open their eyes so that they can see things properly. They will come to God. Then Satan, the boss over the bad spirits, he will not control them with his power any more. It is like they are always in the dark now, but they will come into the light. They will believe in me, and they will stop believing lies. And then God will say they are not guilty of the bad things they did, and they will be God’s people.’ Jesus said that to me.”

Acts 4:26

Their bosses and leaders are getting ready to fight. They want to get together to fight against God, and they want to fight against the man that God picked to be his special person.’

Acts 4:27

And now that has happened, just like David wrote. Herod and Pontius Pilate are both bosses from different countries. They, and some of their countrymen, they all met together in this city. And they met with Jewish people too. They all tried to work out a way to get rid of Jesus. He was your worker, the special one that you sent to us. You, God, are the one with power, and you knew everything they were going to do, and you let them do it.

Colossians 1:13

You know, the boss over the bad spirits always used to push us to do bad things. It’s like we were in a bad place, where he is the boss. But God sent his son, Jesus, to get us out of that place. He took the payback for us, so that now God will not punish us. He set us free from that bad boss, and now we belong to the family of God’s son. God loves his son Jesus very much.

James 2:5

Listen to me, my good Christian friends. God picks out poor people, and he helps them to trust him properly. He promises to give them a good place in his family. He promises that to everybody that loves him. In the end those poor people will be really rich.

1 Peter 2:9

But you are the people God picked out for himself. Together you work for him, like the men that looked after his ceremonies. You are his own family. God called you away from doing bad things, so you can do good things. It is like you used to live in the dark so that nobody could see you do bad things there, but now he called you away from that to live in his good light. So let’s tell everyone that God is really great and really good.