Matthew 12:34-37
The Message
34-37 “You have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It’s your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation.”
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Matthew 12:34-37
GOD’S WORD Translation
34 You poisonous snakes! How can you evil people say anything good? Your mouth says what comes from inside you. 35 Good people do the good things that are in them. But evil people do the evil things that are in them.
36 “I can guarantee that on judgment day people will have to give an account of every careless word they say. 37 By your words you will be declared innocent, or by your words you will be declared guilty.”
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Matthew 12:34-37
New Century Version
34 You snakes! You are evil people, so how can you say anything good? The mouth speaks the things that are in the heart. 35 Good people have good things in their hearts, and so they say good things. But evil people have evil in their hearts, so they say evil things. 36 And I tell you that on the Judgment Day people will be responsible for every careless thing they have said. 37 The words you have said will be used to judge you. Some of your words will prove you right, but some of your words will prove you guilty.”
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Matthew 12:34-37
New Life Version
34 You family of snakes! How can you say good things when you are sinful? The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man will speak good things because of the good in him. A bad man will speak bad things because of the sin in him. 36 I say to you, on the day men stand before God, they will have to give an answer for every word they have spoken that was not important. 37 For it is by your words that you will not be guilty and it is by your words that you will be guilty.”
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Matthew 12:34-37
The Voice
34 You children of snakes, you who are evil—how could you possibly say anything good? For the mouth simply shapes the heart’s impulses into words. 35 And so the good man (who is filled with goodness) speaks good words, while the evil man (who is filled with evil) speaks evil words. 36 I tell you this: on the day of judgment, people will be called to account for every careless word they have ever said. 37 The righteous will be acquitted by their own words, and you evildoers will be condemned by your own words.
Matthew 12:34-37
The Message
34-37 “You have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It’s your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation.”
Read full chapter
Matthew 12:34
GOD’S WORD Translation
34 You poisonous snakes! How can you evil people say anything good? Your mouth says what comes from inside you.
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Matthew 12:34
New Century Version
34 You snakes! You are evil people, so how can you say anything good? The mouth speaks the things that are in the heart.
Read full chapter
Matthew 12:34
New Life Version
34 You family of snakes! How can you say good things when you are sinful? The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
Read full chapter
Matthew 12:34
The Voice
34 You children of snakes, you who are evil—how could you possibly say anything good? For the mouth simply shapes the heart’s impulses into words.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
Copyright © 1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God’s Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.