Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
| Word | Greek | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Then | Τότε Tote | G5119 | the when · adverb |
| saith he | λέγει legei | G3004 | properly · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person singular |
| to | δούλοις doulois | G1401 | a slave (literal or figurative · noun — dative plural masculine |
| his | αὐτοῦ· autou | G846 | the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine |
| servants | δοῦλος doûlos | G1401 | a slave (literal or figurative |
| The wedding | γάμος gamos | G1062 | nuptials · noun — nominative singular masculine |
| is | ἐστί estí | G2076 | he (she or it) is |
| ready | ἕτοιμός hetoimos | G2092 | adjusted · adjective — nominative singular masculine |
| but | δὲ de | G1161 | but · conjunction |
| they which were bidden | κεκλημένοι keklēmenoi | G2564 | to "call" (properly · verb — perfect passive participle, nominative plural masculine |
| were | ἦν ēn | G2258 | I (thou |
| not | οὐκ ouk | G3756 | the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverb · particle — negative |
| worthy | ἄξιοι. axioi | G514 | deserving · adjective — nominative plural masculine |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy--for how should those be deemed worthy to sit down at His table who had affronted Him by their treatment of His gracious invitation?
Then saith he to his servants,.... That were preserved from their rage and malice, and outlived their implacable enemies, and saw their utter ruin and destruction: the wedding is ready; meaning not the marriage contract, which was secretly performed in eternity; or the calling of God's elect among the Jews, and their open espousal to Christ, which for the present was now over; but the marriage feast, or the Gospel dispensation, which was ushered in, and the ministry of it, to which nothing was wanting; all the promises, prophecies, types, and shadows, of the former dispensation, were now accomplished; the Lamb of God was slain, and all things to be done by him, were now finished; the minist…
Read the whole note in the consoleMatthew 22:1-14 Matthew 22:1-14 Luke 14:15-24 1. And Jesus answering, spoke again by parables, and said, 2. The kingdom of heaven is like a human king who made a marriage for his son, 3. And sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage, and they refused to come. 4. Again he sent out other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited, Lo, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come to the marriage. 5. But they treated it with indifference, and went away, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise: 6. And the rest took his servants, and abused and killed them. 7. But when the king heard it, he was angry, and sent hi…
Read the whole note in the consoleThose who reject God’s invitation aren’t worthy to enter his Kingdom (cp. 3:8; 10:13, 37-38).
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
(ubi sup.) But when He sees that His invitation is spurned at, He will not have His Son's marriage-feast empty; the word of God will find where it may stay itself.
But he who sees that those invited despise him will not allow his son's wedding to remain empty. He sends to others, because even if the word of God labors among some, nevertheless at some point it will find a place where it may rest. Hence it is added: "Then he said to his servants: The wedding indeed is prepared, but those who were invited were not worthy."
But someone will object, This is strange. What great matter is it that one man among this large crowd does not have a wedding garment? Why rivet attention on this one man? So what if he creeps in unperceived by the servants of the householder? How could it be said that because of just that one, "they invited in both good and bad together"? Attend therefore, beloved, and understand. This man represents a whole class of persons of whom there are many.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
