Luke 2:15-20

The shepherds go to Bethlehem. διέλθωμεν δή, come! let us go. The force of δή, a highly emotional particle (the second time we have met with it, vide at Matthew 13:23), can hardly be expressed in English. The rendering in A. V [24] (and R. V [25]), “Let us now go,” based on the assumption that δὴ has affinity with ἤδη, is very tame, giving no idea of the mental excitement of the shepherds, and the demonstrative energy with which they communicated to each other, comrade-fashion, the idea which had seized their minds. “The δὴ gives a pressing character to the invitation,” Godet. Similarly Hahn = “agedum, wohlan, doch”. Cf. δὴ in Acts 13:2. The διὰ in διέλθωμεν suggests the idea of passing through the fields. ἕως (conjunction used as a preposition) may imply that it was a considerable distance to Bethlehem (Schanz). ῥῆμα, here = “thing” rather than “word”.

[24] Authorised Version.

[25] Revised Version.