An Unresponsive Generation

16 “To what should I compare this generation? It’s like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to each other:

17 We played the flute for you,
but you didn’t dance;
we sang a lament,
but you didn’t mourn![a]

18 For John did not come eating or drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’(A) 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard,(B) a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’(C) Yet wisdom is vindicated[b] by her deeds.”[c]

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 11:17 Or beat your breasts
  2. Matthew 11:19 Or declared right
  3. Matthew 11:19 Other mss read children

16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

17 “‘We played the pipe for you,
    and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
    and you did not mourn.’

18 For John came neither eating(A) nor drinking,(B) and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’(C) But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

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