Matthew 22:1-14

New American Standard Bible

Parable of the Marriage Feast

22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, ² “^(A)The kingdom of heaven ^[a]is like ^[b]a king who ^[c]held a ^(B)wedding feast for his son. ³ And he ^(C)sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. ⁴ Again he ^(D)sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened cattle are all butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!”’ ⁵ But they paid no attention and went their separate ways, one to his own ^[d]farm, another to his business, ⁶ and the rest seized his slaves and treated them abusively, and then killed them. ⁷ Now the king was angry, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. ⁸ Then he *said to his slaves, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. ⁹ So go to ^(E)the main roads, and invite whomever you find there to the wedding feast.’ ¹⁰ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good; and the wedding hall was filled with ^[e]dinner guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to look over the ^[f]dinner guests, he saw ^(F)a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, ¹² and he *said to him, ‘^(G)Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. ¹³ Then the king said to the servants, ‘Tie his hands and feet, and throw him into ^(H)the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in that place.’ ¹⁴ For many are ^[g](I)called, but few are ^(J)chosen.”