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Luke 15:17
ESV “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!
NIV When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!
NASB But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired laborers have more than enough bread, but I am dying here from hunger!
CSB When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger!
NLT When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!
KJV And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

What does Luke 15:17 mean?

The foolish son in this parable (Luke 15:11–12) is apparently unmarried but old enough to strike out on his own. That means he's probably a mid- to late-teenager. In modern culture, particularly in the west, it's common for teenage boys to want to rebel against their fathers, spend all their money, and leave the discipline of home behind. That wasn't common in Jesus' day. Most people in the Roman Empire were slaves or servants. Being the son of a Jewish landowner was a privileged position. This young man did more than disrespect his responsibilities and waste his opportunities. He also shamed his family by choosing to live as if his father were dead.

After spending all his inheritance, the son finds himself in the middle of a severe famine. He's toiling on another man's farm, jealous of the pigs he is feeding (Luke 15:13–16). The Greek word translated "hired servant" means a day laborer who earns the very least. The boy's father even provides seasonal farm hands with enough bread to sate them. He realizes that the lowliest of his father's servants has more than he does.

Often, we attempt to justify sin by removing ourselves from reality; we fool ourselves into thinking we've created a better life. When things go sour, the tendency is to make excuses and invent reasons to believe we're still better off. At some point, wisdom may inspire us to consider how we found ourselves in this position and what we left behind. That is the first step of repentance: recognizing we are wrong and God is right. The second step is acting on that truth (Luke 15:18).
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