A House Divided Cannot Stand

²⁰ And he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they were not even able to eat a meal. ²¹ And when^[a] his family^[b] heard this,^[c] they went out to restrain him, for they were saying, “He has lost his mind!”

²² And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul!” and “By the ruler of the demons he expels the demons!” ²³ And he called them to himself and^[d] was speaking to them in parables, “How can Satan expel Satan? ²⁴ And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom is not able to stand. ²⁵ And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶ And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he is not able to stand, but is at an end! ²⁷ But no one is able to enter into the house of a strong man and^[e] plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man, and then he can thoroughly plunder his house.

²⁸ “Truly I say to you that all the sins and the blasphemies will be forgiven the sons of men, however much they blaspheme. ²⁹ But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit does not have forgiveness forever,^[f] but is guilty of an eternal sin”— ³⁰ because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”