Luke 14:28
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn't first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?
WEB
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
KJV
What Luke 14:28 means
Jesus asks a common-sense question: no one starting to build a tower begins without first sitting down to calculate whether he can afford to finish it, and following him works the same way.
This line opens the first of two paired parables, the tower-builder and a king weighing whether to go to war (14:28–33), that Jesus tells to the large crowds trailing after him. It follows his hard sayings about carrying one's cross and loving him above family and life itself. The image is not a lesson in personal budgeting. It is about weighing what discipleship will actually demand before signing on.
His hearers knew the picture well. Building projects were public, and a half-raised tower left standing unfinished became a visible embarrassment that neighbors would mock for years. Crowds were swept along by enthusiasm, and Jesus deliberately slows them down, asking them to look past the excitement to the real price.
The translation's word "count" renders the Greek *psēphizō*, to reckon with small pebbles, to calculate deliberately rather than guess. "Cost" is *dapanē*, the expense, and "complete" points toward *telos*, the finished end. Together they call not for hesitation but for sober reckoning, going in with open eyes toward something you intend to see all the way through.