Matthew 21:28-24:5

Tree of Life Version

A Parable about Intentions and Actions

²⁸ “Now what do you think? A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹ The son answered, ‘I won’t,’ but afterward he had a change of heart and went. ³⁰ The man went to the second son and said the same thing. But he answered, ‘I will, sir,’ and didn’t go. ³¹ Which of the two did the will of the father?”

“The first,” they said.

Yeshua said to them, “Amen, I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are going ahead of you into the kingdom of God. ³² For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and even after you saw this, you had no change of heart to believe him.”

Parable of the Vineyard

³³ “Listen to another parable. There was a master of a household who planted a vineyard. He put a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower.^[a] Then He leased it to some tenant farmers and went on a journey. ³⁴ Now when fruit season drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. ³⁵ But grabbing his servants, the tenants beat up one, killed another, and stoned still another. ³⁶ Again the master sent other servants, even more than the first, and they did the same thing to them. ³⁷ Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

³⁸ “But when the tenants saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir! Come on, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’ ³⁹ So grabbing him, they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. ⁴⁰ Therefore when the master of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

⁴¹ “He will bring those miserable men to a miserable end,” they said to Him, “and will lease the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the fruits in their seasons.” ⁴² Yeshua said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures^[b]?

⁴³ Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people producing its fruits. ⁴⁴ Whoever falls on this stone will be shattered; but the one upon whom it falls, it will crush him.”^[d]

⁴⁵ When the ruling kohanim and Pharisees heard Yeshua’s parables, they realized He was talking about them. ⁴⁶ Although they were trying to seize Him, they feared the crowds, because they regarded Him as a prophet.

Invitation to the Wedding Feast

22 Yeshua answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying, ² “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who made a wedding feast for his son. ³ He sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they wouldn’t come. ⁴ Again he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who were invited, “Look, I’ve prepared my meal. My oxen and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!”’

⁵ “But paying no attention, they went away, one to his own farm, another to his business. ⁶ And the rest grabbed his servants, humiliated them, and killed them. ⁷ Now the king became furious! Sending his troops, he destroyed those murderers and set fire to their city.

⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. ⁹ So go into the highways and byways, and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast.’ ¹⁰ And those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all they found, both bad and good; and the wedding was filled with guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to look over the guests, he saw a man there who wasn’t dressed in wedding clothes. ¹² ‘Friend,’ he said to him, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But the man was silent. ¹³ Then the king said to his servants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

A Trap about Paying Taxes

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might trap Him with a word. ¹⁶ And they sent to Him some of their disciples, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are honest and teach the way of God in truth. And what others think doesn’t concern You, for You do not look at men’s appearance. ¹⁷ Tell us therefore, what do You think? Is it permitted to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

¹⁸ But Yeshua, knowing their wickedness, said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show Me the tax money.”

So they brought Him a denarius.

²⁰ And He said to them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

²¹ “Caesar’s,” they said to Him.

Then He said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ²² And hearing this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.

Religious Leaders Ask a Tricky Question

²³ On that day, Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Yeshua and questioned Him, saying, ²⁴ “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If someone dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his widow and father children for his brother.’ ^{[e] 25} Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died; and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ In the same way also the second, and the third, down to the seventh. ²⁷ Last of all, the woman died. ²⁸ So in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her.”

²⁹ But answering, Yeshua said to them, “You’ve gone astray, because you don’t understand the Scriptures or the power of God. ³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ³¹ But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living!” ^{[f] 33} When the crowds heard this, they were astounded at His teaching.

The Greatest Mitzvot

³⁴ But the Pharisees, when they heard that Yeshua had silenced the Sadducees, gathered together in one place. ³⁵ And testing Him, one of them, a lawyer, asked, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah?”

³⁷ And He said to him, “‘You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ^{[g] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ^{[h] 40} The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Yeshua Overturns the Arguments

⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Yeshua asked them a question, ⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is He?”^[i]

“David’s,” they say to Him.

⁴³ “Then how is it,” He says to them, “that David by the Ruach calls him ‘Lord’?

⁴⁵ If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?” ⁴⁶ No one was able to answer Him a word. Nor did anyone dare from that day on to question Him any longer.

Seven Woes

23 Then Yeshua spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, ² saying, “The Torah scholars and Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses. ³ So whatever they tell you, do and observe. But don’t do what they do; for what they say, they do not do. ⁴ They tie up heavy loads, hard to carry,^[k] and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move them. ⁵ All their works they do to be noticed by men. They make their tefillin wide and their tzitziyot long. ^{[l] 6} They love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, ⁷ greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called rabbi by men.

⁸ “But you are not to be called rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹ And call no man on earth your father; for One is your Father, who is in heaven. ¹⁰ Nor are you to be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Messiah. ¹¹ But the greatest among you shall be your servant. ¹² Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

¹³ “But woe to you, Torah scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not enter yourselves, nor do you let those enter who are trying to go in. (¹⁴ )^[m]

¹⁵ “Woe to you, Torah scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel over land and sea to make one convert. And when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourself.

¹⁶ “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘Whoever swears by the Temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the Temple, he is obligated.’ ¹⁷ O fools and blind ones! Which is greater, the gold or the Temple that made the gold holy? ^{[n] 18} And you say, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.’ ¹⁹ O blind ones! Which is greater, the offering or the altar that makes the offering holy? ^{[o] 20} Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and everything on it. ²¹ And whoever swears by the Temple, swears both by the Temple and by Him who dwells in it. ²² And whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

²³ “Woe to you, Torah scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe^[p] mint and dill and cumin, yet you have neglected the weightier matters of Torah—justice and mercy and faithfulness. It is necessary to do these things without neglecting the others. ²⁴ O blind guides, straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel!

²⁵ “Woe to you, Torah scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and uncontrolled desire. ²⁶ O blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside may become clean as well.

²⁷ “Woe to you, Torah scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. ²⁸ In the same way, you appear righteous to men on the outside, but are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

²⁹ “Woe to you, Torah scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the tzaddikim. ³⁰ And you say, ‘If we’d been alive in the days of our forefathers, we wouldn’t have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers! ³³ O snakes, you brood of vipers! How will you escape the condemnation of Gehenna?

³⁴ “Because of this, behold, I’m sending you prophets and wise men and Torah scholars. Some of them you will kill and execute at the stake, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. ³⁵ And so, upon you shall come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah,^[q] whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar. ^{[r] 36} Amen, I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.”

Holy Temple to Be Destroyed

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁸ Look, your house is left to you desolate! ^{[s] 39} For I tell you, you will never see Me again until you say, ‘Baruch ha-ba b’shem Adonai. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”^[t]

24 Now when Yeshua went out and was going away from the Temple, His disciples came up to point out to Him the Temple buildings. ² “Don’t you see all these?” He responded to them. “Amen, I tell you, not one stone will be left here on top of another—every one will be torn down!”

Signs of the End of Time

³ As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen? What will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”

⁴ Yeshua answered them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray! ⁵ For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will lead many astray.