Matthew 12:38-45

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Sign of Jonah

³⁸ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”^{(A) 39} But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.^{(B) 40} For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.^{(C) 41} The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and indeed something greater than Jonah is here!^{(D) 42} The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed something greater than Solomon is here!^(E)

The Return of the Unclean Spirit

⁴³ “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it returns, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.”^(F)